Tesla launching production of PV cells at NY Gigafactory - report

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is initiating production of the photovoltaic (PV) cells for the Solar Roof at its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, the Associated Press (AP) said Friday, citing the company’s CTO.

Presented in October 2016, the Solar Roof tiles are an element of a three-part solution by the company, including also energy storage and electric cars. The US group started taking orders at the beginning of May and since then has been making the products in a pilot production facility at Fremont, California.

Tesla’s chief technical officer Jeffrey Brian Straubel has told the AP that the Buffalo factory is now has several hundred workers, adding that the group hopes to "have the ramp-up of solar roof modules started in a substantial way" by end-2017.

Tesla now has plans to reach annual solar cell production of 2 GW, Straubel was cited as saying. Its previous goal was to 1 GW by 2019

The manufacturing facility in Buffalo will operate with support and technology from Japan’s Panasonic Corp (TYO:6752). The plant was originally a project of SolarCity (NASDAQ:SCTY), which was acquired by Tesla in November 2016.

Tesla has already completed the first installations of the Solar Roof. As previously announced by CEO Elon Musk, it is launching two types of solar shingles this year and two early next year.

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