BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — SolarCity’s planned purchase of solar panel manufacturer Silevo could lead to construction of one of the world’s largest solar panel production plants in Buffalo, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.
California-based Silevo is one of two companies that last year committed to a new high-tech clean energy complex that New York state is building at the site of the former Republic Steel mill in Buffalo.
Silevo, which manufactures silicon solar cells and modules in China, had envisioned a targeted capacity of 200 megawatts at the Buffalo site, but SolarCity officials said Tuesday they are in discussions with the state about potentially expanding the capacity to five times that and hiring up to 1,000 people.
“At a targeted capacity greater than 1 GW within the next two years, it will be one of the single largest solar panel production plants in the world,” SolarCity, one of the nation’s largest installers of rooftop solar systems, said in a blog post Tuesday.
“This will be followed in subsequent years by one or more significantly larger plants,” the post said, “at an order of magnitude greater annual production capacity.”
Cuomo last year committed $225 million to construction of the Buffalo complex, to be known as the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend. Under the plan, the state will install the infrastructure, like roads and utilities, and build an anchor hub facility for businesses that agree to locate at the former brownfield site. The state’s commitment is part of Cuomo’s 2012 pledge to invest $1 billion in state funding in the Buffalo economy.
“With today’s news, it is truly a sunny day in Buffalo,” Cuomo said in a statement, “the prospect of thousands of new solar energy jobs coming to the region, marking another landmark investment and economic game-changer taking place in the new western New York.”
Soraa, a Fremont, California-based LED lighting manufacturer, has also committed to the RiverBend site.
