Plans to build the world’s largest solar panel production plant in North America

Just after signing an agreement to acquire Silevo (a solar panel maker), SolarCity announced it’s plans to build one of the world’s largest solar panel production plants in upstate New York.

The announcement was made in a blog article that seems to have been co-authored by SolarCity’s chairman Elon Musk, CEO Lyndon Rive, and CTO Peter Rive.

They made clear that the company’s acquisition of Silevo aims “to combine the best photovoltaic technology with massive economies of scale to achieve a breakthrough in the cost of solar power.”

Reports indicate that the plant which will be located in Buffalo, New York is expected to be in full production next year (2015).  It will produce enough solar panels to produce 1GW of power within its first two years–for use in residential and industrial settings.

Here’s an excerpt from the blog article by Elon Musk, Peter Rive and Lyndon Rive:

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.