SolarCity breaks ground on “GigaFactory” for Solar PV in New York state

SolarCity plans to invest US$5 billion in the factory over the next decadeBuffalo Rising
The 110,000 square meter plant in Buffalo will produce PV cells and modules based on Silevo's high-efficiency technology, as the largest solar manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere.

SolarCity has begun construction of its new manufacturing facilty for PV cells and modules in Buffalo, New York. The factory will occupy 110,000 square meters, and will have the capacity to produce 1 GW of PV modules when fully ramped.



This announcement follows the conclusion of negotiations with the state of New York, which will invest a total of US$750 million to establish infrastructure, help build the facility and purchase equipment. SolarCity plans to spend US$5 billion over the next decade to build and operate the plant.



A statement by the Governor's Office estimates that the factory will be producing PV modules as early as the first quarter of 2016. SolarCity estimates that the factory will create 1,450 manufacturing jobs.

Modules made at the factory will feature high-efficiency PV cells based on technology by Silevo, which SolarCity purchased earlier in September. Silevo's Triex cell technology combines amorphous silicon layers and crystalline silicon, as well as a "tunneling" oxide layer, a design borrowed from the semiconductor industry.



This has allowed Silevo's PV cells to achieve 22.1% efficiency, as verified by the U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory. The company unveiled a roadmap to achieve 24% cell effiicency in 2011.





Source : PV Magazine

Andrew M. Cuomo - Governor


Governor Cuomo Announces New SolarCity GigaFactory Complex at RiverBend
Will create nearly 5,000 jobs upstate, with over 3,000 in Buffalo
Governor breaks ground on largest solar manufacturing facility in Western Hemisphere[1]


Albany, NY (September 23, 2014)


Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced a new, one million-square-foot site for the future SolarCity GigaFactory facility, which will manufacture solar panels at the RiverBend site in South Buffalo. The Governor was in Buffalo today to officially break ground on the project, which will create more than 3,000 jobs in Western New York alone and a total of nearly 5,000 jobs in the state. The SolarCity facility will be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 1 gigawatt of annual solar capacity when it reaches full production.

“We said four years ago that we have to change the mentality of Buffalo, and every day since we have been working hard to continue this new energy and momentum in Western New York. Less than a year after announcing our original plan, one of the leading solar companies in the world is coming on board and making this the largest advancement for Buffalo's economy in a generation," Governor Cuomo said. “This is bigger than anything we could have imagined. It is the perfect metaphor for Buffalo, where the fundamental strength was the available hydropower. That hydropower now, that renewable energy now, will fuel the renewable energy industry for the future. I am incredibly proud that the state is playing a role in this project, because Buffalo’s future is New York’s future, and today that future is brighter than ever.”

The SolarCity GigaFactory will be located at the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, a new START-UP NY site owned by the State University of New York's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Since RiverBend was first unveiled [2] in November 2013 by Governor Cuomo, SolarCity purchased Silevo, one of the designated anchor RiverBend tenants, and assumed an agreement with the State to increase more than fivefold the manufacturing capability of the clean energy facility. Silevo is a company that develops and manufactures high-efficiency silicon solar cells and modules.

SolarCity, the nation's largest solar power provider, will spend $5 billion over the next decade in connection with the creation and operation of the facility in New York, and New York State will invest a total of $750 million through the Buffalo Billion and other state resources to establish infrastructure, construct the 1.2 million square foot facility and purchase required equipment. The state investment will replicate the model created in Albany at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, in which rather than giving money directly to private companies, the State invests in core infrastructure and equipment and uses that equipment as the incentive to attract companies to establish themselves in these new high-tech facilities. The factory will be online and in high volume manufacturing as early as the first quarter of 2016.

Source:  Governor Cuomo Announces New SolarCity GigaFactory Complex at RiverBend

Tesla battery business plan gives energy utilities strife

Elon Musk, the maverick CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., is not to be taken lightly. First, he came up with an elegant electric vehicle that performs as good as it looks, while offering an extended range, something other all-electric vehicles could only talk about. Now, he says, time has arrived to go mainstream, with a version that offers extended range but with a price tag that may appeal to the ordinary folks, not just the rich, who have been his clients up to now.

The biggest obstacle is that there are not enough batteries for Tesla to ramp up production. The second is that today's batteries, when you can find them, are pricey for the amount of energy they store. Now that Tesla feels confident that if it can build more, consumers will buy them, it has decided to get into battery manufacturing business, and not in a haphazard way, but by building what is referred to as a $5 billion mega-factory.



Following the announcement, Mr. Musk, who is worth billions as stocks of his company continue to defy all laws of logic and gravity (graph on page 15), said, "Shifting to greater use of solar and wind power will challenge utility companies." In case his message did not register, he added, the shift will bring, "some amount of strife for the existing utilities, especially for those invested more heavily in fossil fuels."

Speaking before a receptive, if nervous, audience at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the state's regulator, Musk said Tesla is "working to create stationary battery packs that last long, are super safe and are compact."

His cousin, SolarCity's CEO Lyndon Rive, went even further by predicting that "There is no doubt storage will become cost effective and deliver electricity with storage at night." As if that was not enough to shock and awe, Rive added that utilities in California and elsewhere, who are resisting change, are merely delaying the inevitable.

The "Thought Leaders" session at CPUC, which normally draws 50 attendees or so, filled the largest auditorium and 2 adjacent rooms as hordes of people, no doubt including many job seekers with resumes in hand, flocked to hear Musk, a high-tech celebrity worthy of Hollywood paparazzi.

Musk and Rive, of course, can say what they want and get away with it. Both their companies are on a rapid growth path, pushing new technologies, enjoying increased sales, and facing declining costs. The utility industry, by contrast, is facing tepid or no growth, for the most part relies on technologies that have been around for decades if not longer, and facing increasing costs, especially in upgrading the aging network, the grid. While the average age of Tesla and SolarCity's workforce is under 30, utilities are mostly dealing with an aging workforce ready for retirement. Utility stocks are stable at best, if the companies are well-managed while Tesla's stocks keep on rising. The contrast between the old and the new is inescapable.

As CEO of a major solar PV company, Rive was critical of utilities, who are "taking months to connect residential solar panels to their systems" accusing them of playing games, "because they profit from the current system."

"When you have a game- changing technology, those in the game don't want to change," Rive said. "They like the existing game, the sole source, cost-plus model."
Rive noted that it now takes 8 months for utilities in California to connect a SolarCity PV customer with an energy storage system to the grid.

As reported in the February 2014 issue of this newsletter, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) placed a temporary moratorium on new solar PV connections while trying to figure out how to deal with the surge of new installations.

Tesla's new battery factory, if all goes according to plan, could make it easier for customers to store their excess generation during sunny periods for later use, whether in their Tesla cars or in a storage device in the garage. Musk, who is SolarCity's chairman and the largest shareholder, has been offering Tesla batteries to selected rooftop solar customers in parts of California and New England. Once battery production soars and prices plunge, as expected, more PV customers can be fitted with storage.
Tesla's stock shot to $352.54 on 19 March 2014.



Source: Renew Economy

SolarCity Sees Energy Storage ‘Viable’ Within 10 Years, CEO Says

SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), the solar power provider led by billionaire Elon Musk, will complete about 100 energy storage systems for customers this year and plans to expand as costs decline, according to its chief executive officer.

“It’ll be a viable product in the next ten years,” SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said today in an interview in San Francisco. “We don’t know yet how big the next phase is going to be, but this is a long term investment, full stop,” he said. “We will solve the storage issue.”

The San Mateo, California-based company is installing 8 kilowatt-hour battery packs provided by Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) and combining them with energy management systems that allow for remote monitoring. Storage will be crucial to balance the U.S. electric grid as solar expands from 1 percent of total generation capacity today, according to Rive.

“The criticism that solar gets is that it’s intermittent, that you can’t depend on it, but at 1 percent it still doesn’t matter,” Rive said. “Once you get to 20 percent, it starts to matter,” he said.

Rooftop solar systems that SolarCity provides don’t have the same risk of dropping off in large amounts from the grid, though that is an issue with larger utility-scale systems, according to Rive.

“The fear of intermittency actually comes from large central solar,” he said. “We can forecast very accurately what power you’re going to produce based on the weather conditions that we see,” he said.

SolarCity has 395 energy storage “pilots” under contract, according to a filing March 27.

Musk is Tesla’s CEO as well as SolarCity’s chairman and it’s largest shareholder. Rive is his cousin.



Source: Bloomberg