[don_draper]

Anybody know how these companies continue to get money from investors? SolarCity, Tesla, Sun Edison lose money year after year. None of them are profitable. And they won't be for years. I guess the thinking is that once, or if, they get profitable they will benefit from being the established players.

[jkestner]

Yeah, it's called a startup. Amazon has similarly avoided making profits while it can roll money back into expanding its dominance. The key is to articulate and stick to a long-term plan.

[spenrose]

WRT SolarCity, and solar generally, you spend something like $2,000 (haven't looked it up) to manufacture a panel that generates a kilowatt at peak, you wire it up, and you generate power (and revenue) every sunny afternoon for the next 25 years. "The thinking" -- or as I prefer to call it, "the physics" -- is that you create value over time.