Giga New York




In 2014, SolarCity announced plans to build a new manufacturing facility, also known as the Gigafactor 2, in Buffalo, New York, in coordination with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute after acquiring Silevo, a maker of high-efficiency solar modules. The initial manufacturing complex would be a 1.2-million-square-foot (110,000 m2) facility that would cost $900 million and employ 1,500 workers in Buffalo and 5,000 statewide. With a planned capacity of one gigawatt of solar panels annually by 2019, the new plant would be the largest solar plant in the U.S. Groundbreaking for the project occurred in September 2014 with a target completion date of early 2016.

The facility would be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Panasonic was to handle production at the Buffalo plant, investing $256 million. Panasonic and SolarCity/Silevo are developing similar but somewhat different HIT-technology, and Panasonic hopes to use SolarCity's 6-inch (150 mm) wafers combining the two companies' technologies at an efficiency of 22%. SolarCity expects demand to outstrip the Buffalo production of 10,000 solar panels per day, and buys solar equipment from other manufacturers until more factories can be built.

In February 2016, CEO Lyndon Rive announced that due to delays incurred in the supply of machinery for the plant, production would begin in summer 2017. New York State owns the building and most of the equipment, leasing it to SolarCity. Most of the work was completed by November 2016, when the Buffalo Billion project was under investigation, delaying state payments to contractors, but not influencing progress on completion of construction. SolarCity started hiring for the facility in December 2016.

Elon Musk announced in 2017 that production of Tesla's solar roof products would be moved to the Buffalo facility at the end of 2017. It was reported that as of August 2017, production of solar roof tiles had begun at the facility, and Tesla expected to continue to ramp up production through the rest of the year. By the end of 2018, the facility employed about 800 workers. The state of New York required the company to employ at least 1,460 workers at the facility by April 2020 or face a $41.2 million penalty, and in February 2020, the company reported having 1,500 workers at the facility. Panasonic announced that they will cease operations at the facility in May 2020.

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