The news reported yesterday that SolarCity has received financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to install solar electricity systems on houses on military bases is perhaps even sweeter on the heels of the Solyandra bankruptcy. After failing to meet a deadline to get government loan backing, SolarCity and one of the country's largest banks pressed on to reach a deal. SolarCity will install solar systems on up to 120,000 military homes.

"It will be the largest residential deployment of solar in American history," SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive told NPR. (Read more news coverage.)

Watch the video above, from last summer's Aspen Ideas Festival, where Rive, along with a panel of leaders in sustainability describe the utility of the future.