SolarCity

solar
Solar companies

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/another-giga-plant-underway-solarcity-strikes-a-deal-with-new-york-for-sola - done reading
http://grist.org/news/now-elon-musk-wants-to-revolutionize-solar-panel-production/ - done reading
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/04/solarcity-corp-scty-share-in-residential-solar-market/
http://www.valuewalk.com/2014/06/solarcity-corp-vs-sunpower-corporation/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530816/solar-city-and-tesla-hatch-a-plan-to-lower-the-cost-of-solar-power/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/526126/does-musks-gigafactory-make-sense/
http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2014/kw14/solarcity-achieves-a-26-share-of-the-us-residential-solar-pv-market.html
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1408356/000119312514238542/d741343d8k.htm
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/embargo-feb-1-8am-pst-solarcity-and-citi-announce-new-fund-for-residential-
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/12/tesla-still-rocking-2014-breakdown/
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/11/tesla-gigafactory-launches-land-grab-around-reno/
http://solarlove.org/solarcity-walmart-tesla-team-boost-solar-energy-battery-storage/
http://solarlove.org/solarcity-offers-new-solar-power-program-el-paso-las-cruces/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530816/solar-city-and-tesla-hatch-a-plan-to-lower-the-cost-of-solar-power/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/526126/does-musks-gigafactory-make-sense/
http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2014/kw14/solarcity-achieves-a-26-share-of-the-us-residential-solar-pv-market.html
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/embargo-feb-1-8am-pst-solarcity-and-citi-announce-new-fund-for-residential
http://grist.org/list/move-over-elon-these-kids-built-an-electric-car-that-beats-the-tesla-s/
http://solarlove.org/tesla-gigafactory-now-schedule-2016-not-2017/

What is SolarCity doing?

SolarCity is in the process of building many large solar panel manufacturing plants in the United States. These plants are supposed to be much larger (in term of capacity) compared to other world wide existing manufacturing plants own by their competitors. These manufacturing plants are meant to build more advanced solar cells.

Who is the CEO of SolarCity?

Lyndon Rive

Who is the chairman of SolarCity?

Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla Motor and Space X.

What is the relationship between Lyndon Rive and Elon Musk?

They are cousins. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530816/solar-city-and-tesla-hatch-a-plan-to-lower-the-cost-of-solar-power/

What is the relationship between SolarCity and Tesla Motor?

The chairman of SolarCity is Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla Motor and Space X.

What is the planned capacity of the solar panel manufacturing plant being constructed by SolarCity in the US?

One Gigawatt per year. We are in discussions with the state of New York to build the initial manufacturing plant, continuing a relationship developed by the Silevo team. 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. This will be followed in subsequent years by one or more significantly larger plants at an order of magnitude greater annual production capacity. See http://grist.org/news/now-elon-musk-wants-to-revolutionize-solar-panel-production/

What do I know about SolarCity?

Over the last year, SolarCity has acquired a leading racking company and a lead generation firm in order to drop installation costs and make customer acquisition more efficient. Executives at the company say they will pursue any option to help it scale. "Anything that will reduce our total installed cost, we will be interested in acquiring,” said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive in a call with investors after the Silevo announcement. By getting into solar manufacturing, SolarCity hopes to guarantee a steady supply of panels to install “tens of gigawatts” of solar per year in the U.S. SolarCity executives also hinted at integrating inverter manufacturing at the site. See http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/another-giga-plant-underway-solarcity-strikes-a-deal-with-new-york-for-sola

Although manufacturers are starting to boost idle production to match increasing global solar demand, SolarCity isn’t interested in conventional crystalline-silicon panels. “We’re seeing high-volume production of basic panels, but not high-volume production of advanced panels,” said Musk.

It’s no secret that SolarCity sees vertical integration as the fastest way to lower the cost of solar energy. But the company wants to go deeper than any other competitor by potentially adding power electronics and battery storage into its production strategy.

Lyndon Rive hinted at future acquisitions of inverter suppliers and a strategy to add storage into the production facility. “Anything that will reduce our total installed cost, we will be interested in acquiring,” he said.

Musk also described the need for deeper integration in order to stay competitive: “We’ll be actively looking at additional companies to acquire, as well as building up engineering to achieve that goal.”

Ultimately, SolarCity is not investing in Silevo as part of a short game. Lyndon Rive described the need to think about position in the market over the coming decades, not just over the next few years.

“We can now control the installed cost per kilowatt-hour. If you do that, the market is infinite for the next 30 or 40 years,” said Rive.

Why did SolarCity purchase Silevo?

After looking at more than twenty manufacturers, the Silevo high-efficiency technology was “the best-performing” and offered the ability to scale most quickly, said Peter Rive. He also said that the company would spend much more on technology R&D over the coming years, but could not quantify how much.

Why did SolarCity purchase Paramount Energy Solutions?

Effective customer education and familiarization is nevertheless important. In fact, it seems to be at least $120 million important to SolarCity, who for that amount recently purchased the direct marketing firm Paramount Energy Solutions, LLC. See http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/27/lowering-resilient-soft-costs-solar/

Does SolarCity work with external installers?

No. SolarCity hire their own installers.

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