Announced wednesday it will end its production of solar panels at the massive taxpayer funded plant in buffalo after agreeing in 2016 to aid tesla s struggling efforts there.
Buffalo solar panel factory.
Originally a steel manufacturing site the 88 acre property located along the buffalo river was transformed to produce solar panels and solar cells.
Buffalo is a city known for snow.
But the city will soon be the home of the largest such manufacturing facility in the western hemisphere according to solarcity the san mateo calif based company that is set to begin moving into the complex later this year.
Tesla giga new york or gigafactory 2 is a photovoltaic pv cell factory leased by tesla subsidiary solarcity in buffalo new york the factory owned by the state of new york was built on brownfield land remediated from a former steel mill.
Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2016 17.
In testimony tuesday empire state development boss howard zemsky tried to put a positive spin on it but he acknowledged that cuomo s gamble of 750 million in taxpayer funds on a buffalo solar.
The factory s original occupant entered into an agreement with the research foundation for the state university of new york.
That s the main focus of its solar energy business now and unless tesla uses the pullout to.
Tesla secured gigafactory 2 through its acquisition of solarcity in 2016.
In 2013 the site of gigafactory 2 was planned as a clean energy business.
Panasonic s withdrawal from buffalo follows scrutiny of the factory that new york spent close to 1 billion to develop for solarcity the solar energy company tesla acquired in 2016.
Instead of being used to generate jobs and revenues for the company the equipment that is being stored in a warehouse unused by tesla.
Ramping up production of the solar roof panel would help tesla keep its promise to the state to create 1 460 jobs at the buffalo plant by april 2020.
Multiple tesla employees have claimed that there is very little.
Albany panasonic corp.
New york state spent 958 6 million to build tesla inc s solar panel factory in south buffalo and buy a big chunk of the equipment inside.