Skip to footer

Tesla and Panasonic plan to manufacture solar cells in Buffalo

Tesla and its battery partner Panasonic have signed a letter of intent over a deal to manufacture solar cells and modules.

|
James Glover/Reuters
Workers during construction of the Tesla Gigafactory near Sparks, Nevada, on July 26, 2016. The factory began production of lithium-ion cells on January 6, 2017.

Tesla and its battery partner Panasonic have signed a letter of intent over a deal to manufacture solar cells and modules in Buffalo, NY.

The deal would see Panasonic begin production of solar products at a plant in Buffalo in 2017, with Tesla providing a long-term purchase commitment. Panasonic already supplies Tesla with batteries for its cars and is a part owner of Tesla’s Gigafactory battery plant in Nevada.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Panasonic as we move towards a combined Tesla and SolarCity,” JB Straubel, Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of Tesla, said in a statement. “By working together on solar, we will be able to accelerate production of high-efficiency, extremely reliable solar cells and modules at the best cost.”

The deal is contingent upon shareholders' approval of Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, which if successful will see Tesla expand to the provision of energy. Shareholders vote on the SolarCity deal November 17.

If all goes to plan, Tesla will be supplying customers with the solar panels that generate electricity that could then be used to charge the battery in their Tesla car or the battery in the Tesla Powerwall home energy storage system.

As Tesla describes it, it will become the “world’s only vertically integrated energy company offering end-to-end clean energy products to customers.”

Though Tesla is slowly ramping up production of its Model S and Model X electric cars, the company is still bleeding cash as it invests in the Model 3 and other new products. Nevertheless, Tesla remains committed to starting deliveries of the Model 3 in late 2017. The Model 3 is expected to generate billions in revenue based on the number of cars that have been pre-ordered.

Demand for the car has been so high that the first year of production is already accounted for. Tesla has previously stated that it hopes to produce as many as 500,000 cars per year (that’s all models) by as early as 2018. That’s almost a 10-fold increase from the number it produces in 2015.

This story originally appeared on MotorAuthority.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Tesla and Panasonic plan to manufacture solar cells in Buffalo
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/1019/Tesla-and-Panasonic-plan-to-manufacture-solar-cells-in-Buffalo
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe