Science Fiction is full of homes, machines, cars, robots and flying saucers that are fueled by free  utterly renewable secret sauce fuels none more coveted than the cult film Back to the Future’s 1.21 gigawatts supplied by a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor and, with the absence of plutonium, a bolt of lightning channeled directly into the flux capacitor by a long pole and hook, or failing that by house rubbish.

We’re not quite there yet with these exotic fuels, but late last week we took what could be a giant step towards relatively inexpensive, readily available, make it yourself energy with Tesla’s Powerwall announcement, a home battery that will save solar energy, captured from your own solar panels, into a relatively small box mounted on your external wall and distribute it around your home as and when you need it.

This is part of a move away from relying on the electricity grid, and despite Elon Musk’s ability to gather media and hype at the speed of a PT Barnum, this is a step in the right direction.

There has been a notion around that by 2030 we could be 100% fueled by solar energy, but it’s always seemed impossible given that currently we’re just nudging 1% of all fuel supplied coming from the sun.

But, given the drop in prices of solar panels, they’re ability to capture and store better than ever, new technologies around this space and now with Tesla’s new home battery, costing sub $7,000 (and its imminent competitors), some are saying that using Moore’s Law theory, we could only be six doublings way from 100% solar energy use.

My take, we need more energy evangelists and new innovations like Elon and Tesla and although this technology may not be the absolute answer it is a clear fork in the road of energy conversation and to Hong Kong’s Phil Whelan’s questions of will the large existing energy and fuel providers stand idly by and let this happen, my answer came in two parts.

Firstly they’re not standing idly by, they are investing and inventing, but in their hearts of hearts perhaps would like the journey to an alternate fuel to slow down just a bit so they can finish using their current stores and infrastructure of fossil and other fuels.

Secondly it’s no longer up to them, disruption has arrived and non industry players are snapping at their heels including Google, Apple and many others who are all on a mad hunt to extend battery life indefinitely for small tech devices and once they’ve cracked it for our small devices (and they will within the next few years), it’s only a small innovation skip and a jump to charging big devices like our homes, cars, factories and airplanes.

Have a listen now and then share your thoughts on what fuel(s) you think we may be using in the future.

David Dowsett – ABC WideBay (5 mins 47 secs)

Phil Whelan – Radio 3 Hong Kong (11 mins 33 secs)