After years of relative quiet, Tesla’s manufacturing unit in Buffalo, New York, has been repurposed again to its unique objective: to make photo voltaic panels.
The 1.2 million ft2 facility obtained an almost $1 billion investment from New York State, and native organizations have been questioning Tesla’s employment figures since Day 1. Initially constructed for Silevo within the early 2010s, the Buffalo plant landed in SolarCity’s lap in 2014 after the photo voltaic installer acquired the panel producer. Then Tesla purchased SolarCity and took on the manufacturing unit. Tesla first partnered with Panasonic to make photo voltaic cells on the facility, however Panasonic left in 2020. Since then, the Buffalo plant has made some solar roof products, change into the core website for EV superchargers and is a home for self-driving automobile knowledge.
Rumors began brewing on the end of 2025 that Tesla was releasing a full-sized photo voltaic panel. Throughout Tesla’s This autumn’25 earnings name, Elon Musk revealed he needs the corporate to construct 100 GW of absolutely built-in U.S. photo voltaic manufacturing capability.
The United States currently manufactures lower than 4 GW of silicon cells and fewer than 50 GW of silicon photo voltaic panels yearly, and not for lack of trying. One of many many points with scaling silicon photo voltaic panel manufacturing in the USA is the complicated IP web with n-type know-how. Tesla seems to be making a totally distinctive panel design in Buffalo.
The TSP-415 and TSP-420 panels function 18 “energy zones,” which permit 18 sections of a 1,805 x 1,135 x 40-mm panel to function semi-independently and mitigate shade impacts. The panels are engineered to work finest with Tesla’s personal inverter. Spec details circulating present the panels having a 20.5% effectivity.
Colby Hastings, senior director of Tesla Vitality, has instructed a number of retailers that the aim is to scale the Buffalo manufacturing unit to 300 MW of panel meeting capability this yr.
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