A processing plant for solar cells and modules will soon rise in Buffalo, New York as Tesla Motor Inc. and Panasonic Corp. merged to make it possible.
Both companies stated on Tuesday that production will begin in summer with the factory's turnout capacity could range up to 1 gigawatt by the year 2019. A spokeswoman for the Osaka-based company, Yayoi Watanabe said over the phone that Panasonic will fund the project with more than 30 billion yen or $256 million for the production equipment installation. However, the total amount invested was not revealed in the statement, according to Bloomberg.
The statement highlights deepening the partnership between Tesla and Panasonic. Together they are establishing lithium-ion gigafactory in Nevada worth $5 billion that will manufacture electric car batteries home energy storage products as well as utilities. Tesla revealed in October plans of collaborating with Panasonic to produce solar cells and modules for the company that installs the solar roof, SolarCity Corp, which was acquired by Tesla a month ago worth $2 billion.
The agreement is a portion of the solar partnership that the two giant companies initially revealed in October, Reuters reported.
"When production of the solar roof begins, Tesla will also incorporate Panasonic's cells into the many kinds of solar glass tile roofs that Tesla will be manufacturing," according to the statement. Tesla chairman Elon Musk revealed plans for solar roofs made of glass tiles in October.
Chief Technical Officer and Co-founder of Tesla, JB Straubel, expressed his excitement of broadening their partnership with Panasonic as they move towards a Tesla-SolarCity combination. He added that collaborating on solar will speed up the output highly efficient, exceptionally reliable solar cells and modules at the most advantageously cost.
Buffalo plant solar components will also exert effort perfectly with Tesla's energy storage devices like Powerwall and Powerpack. The sustained partnership between Panasonic and Tesla is a major step in making fully-integrated products for household, businesses, and utilities and will promote Tesla's objective toward a renewable energy future.