Called for a cab? Get comfortable - you might be waiting awhile.

There I was at four in the morning, walking an hour across the city, alone and dressed like a monkey. It was Halloween night just over two years ago and after impatiently waiting forty-five minutes on the curb for my cab to arrive, I had no choice but to make the journey home on foot. Major bummer.

Calling a taxicab in a city like San Francisco has always been a gamble: Would they be late? Would your driver be irritable and erratic? Would they get flagged down in transit and leave you hanging? The answer to these questions is all too often yes, but once upon a time there wasn't another choice-if you needed a ride, you dialed up the dispatcher and crossed your fingers.

Enter UBER, an affordable car service that you request using a phone app. You get instant confirmation that a driver is on their way, an ETA, and the option to track their progress by map. UBER is dependable. It's safe. It's easy. The game has changed and we-the-wheeless are winning. UBER and other ride-share companies offer passengers choice.

Just like you should be able to decide between hailing a checkered car or using an app to summon a lift, you should also be able to choose how you obtain utilities. Like the UBER of power, solar energy offers people a cleaner, more affordable alternative.

Traditionally there has only been one way to power your home: utilities and their expensive, fossil-fuel reliant product. But today's solar is no longer a science project for the do-it-yourselfer with an electrician's license (not there's anything wrong with that kind of solar, it just doesn't scale). Today it's possible for many homeowners to pay less for solar electricity than they pay for power from the utility from day one, with insurance, monitoring and performance guarantees that are far more extensive than any utility offers.

Disruptive innovation at its finest means more happy homes and paying passengers, but not all have welcomed the change. Utility companies and cab companies are freaking out, panicking over the influx of options and direct competition.  Taxi and limo drivers across Europe are protesting and in San Francisco cabbies are harassing UBER drivers on the road. Utility companies are acting in similar, yet quieter ways, attempting to smack down solar with legislative action.

These powerful monopolies are understandably threatened by the sudden availability of choice-they've never had to work for their share of the profit by adhering to customer wants and needs. Hey guys-there's no need to crush the competition. Simply offer the people what they want, when they want it, and they'll call-whether it's for power or a ride to the party.

"We're pro-competition, we're pro-consumer choice, and I think the market's going to decide a lot of these factors," says Justin Kintz UBER's policy director for the Americas.

SolarCity feels the same way about energy. Choice and competition benefits everyone - and so does rooftop solar. More solar means less of a dependence on polluting power plants and costly powerlines. Energy gets cheaper, cleaner, and better for everyone-even girls in monkey costumes.

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