David McManus says when Elon Musk takes to the stage the world listens

We may all be aware that it is the case but it is still astonishing to consider that most of the electricity we use in our homes is derived from setting fire to something.

As we marvel at our technological advancement, the light that illuminates the dark and the heat that keeps us warm is essentially unchanged since a bunch of cavemen sat hunched around a pile of burning logs.

Elon Musk, the Internet billionaire who made his fortune by developing and selling PayPal, is a man with a plan. Actually, he is a man with several plans, each of which initially sounds like something borrowed from a futuristic science fiction movie.

But Musk puts his money – and his determination – where his mouth is. This is the chap who introduced the world to the Tesla car. The electric motored vehicles may not yet be almost silently whirring their way around the UK’s streets but their invention has certainly kickstarted a trend. It now seems perfectly obvious that the future of the personal motor car will be electric.

Musk is routinely declared as the real-life Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. He has an almost limitless supply of cash and wants to use it not just to make himself even wealthier but to advance science and help to make the future take off – literally.

Over a decade ago, Musk founded Space X with one ‘simple’ goal in mind; to reduce the cost of space transportation to the point where it becomes financially viable to colonise Mars.

As with Tesla cars, this is more than just a fantasy. Space X has successfully launched recoverable, reusable rockets into orbit and more recently developed the Dragon spacecraft which has taken supplies up to the International Space Station.

So when Musk took to the stage last week to announce his latest project, the thinking world took notice.

Tesla Power, an offshoot of his car company, will develop batteries for the home. What seems like an obvious product has never actually been done before because of the general inefficiency of the battery. Modern rechargeable cells may run your smartphone for a day but even scaled up would be of little use powering the energy hungry devices of the home.

Musk, of course, has some knowledge of how to build a battery. The continuing success of Tesla cars relies on their ability to squeeze ever greater mileage from a single charge.

The Tesla Power Wall looks something like a compact boiler but can hold enough juice to keep the house ticking over for short spells. The target market will initially be North America as the Power Wall takes 100 per cent of its power input from solar energy.

The US national grid allows owners of solar panels to sell back any electricity they generate but do not use. only for those owners to then have to buy it back during the half of the day without sun.

Keeping that excess power in reserve is cheaper and far more efficient. It has been suggested some homes will gather enough power during daylight to go off the grid entirely.

The UK makes use of solar power but it remains to be seen just how worthwhile a Power Wall would be under our slate grey skies.

But battery efficiency is improving every year and as with the car, it is inevitable the home of the future will be run entirely from cleanly generated and stored electricity.