Gigafactory New York

Republic Steel and Donner Hanna Coke operated a steel mill along the Buffalo River on the 88-acre[4] Riverbend, South Buffalo site from early in the 20th century to its closing in 1984.[5] As a response to the regional manufacturing downturn related to deindustrialization in the Rust Belt, the State of New York created an economic stimulus package, later dubbed the "Buffalo Billion", providing $1 billion in unearmarked economic investments for the Buffalo area.[6][7] In 2013, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Hub at Riverbend, targeting the Republic Steel site, then a brownfield, for the development of a clean energy business incubation center that was to be funded with $225 million from the Buffalo Billion fund.[8] At the time, the two companies announced as tenants were lighting manufacturer Sorra and solar panel manufacturer Silevo, which promised 475 jobs.[9][10] Development of the site would be managed by the Fort Schuyler Management Corp., a nonprofit entity led by officials from the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) and other state agencies.[8][11]

In 2014, SolarCity detailed plans to acquire Silevo for $200 million,[12] subsequently scaling up plans for the Buffalo gigafactory. The company outlined a construction timetable and hiring goals promising an eventual 3,000 jobs in Buffalo with 5,000 statewide, and $5 billion in economic activity. The new plans abandoned the research center design in favor of the construction of a 1.2 million square foot factory. As a result, the state increased the incentives offered to $750 million.[13] Because the SolarCity project was to be so big, New York bumped Soraa out of the plant.[14]

In 2015, SolarCity's CEO, Lyndon Rive, stated that the new facility would be key to creating a clean energy-manufacturing market, adding that expansion would not be possible at the Riverbend plant, but more likely in the immediate area.[15]

In April 2017, Cuomo secured another $500 million for the Buffalo Billion project, about half of which went into the Tesla facility, bringing New York’s total investment in the factory to $959 million.[14]

Construction began in September 2014. In October 2015, SolarCity persuaded the state to remove the term “high-tech” from the jobs agreement and to reduce the number of jobs in “manufacturing operations” from 900 to 500.[14]

By the summer of 2016, SolarCity was about $3 billion in debt and nearly out of cash. Tesla announced it would acquire the company.[14] To convince Tesla shareholders to approve the deal, Musk rushed to launch a prototype of the Tesla Solar Roof, a solar shingle, unveiling it in October 2016. At the time, Musk predicted that 1,000 Solar Roofs would be produced weekly in Buffalo.[16] Tesla and SolarCity employees, along with bankers advising on the deal later said that they were blindsided by the announcement, saying that the product was still in the early design stage.[14] The demo worked, and Tesla's shareholders approved the purchase.[16] The president of SUNY Poly, Alain Kaloyeros, resigned in 2016 and was subsequently convicted of rigging the bids to build the factory.[11]

The facility was completed in late 2016 and was furnished with equipment through 2017.[17]

The factory began production of solar cells in late August 2017.[18][19] To build the panels, Tesla turned to its longtime partner, Panasonic.[20] The two companies worked together to build batteries at Tesla's Gigafactory Nevada. Panasonic had 30 years of experience producing solar panels.[21] The partnership allowed Tesla to outsource production and reduce its reliance on debt.[22] At the beginning of production, Panasonic built traditional solar panels in Buffalo instead of solar shingles.[23] The Japanese company employed about 400 people in Buffalo.[14]

In January 2018, Tesla announced, after testing on employees' roofs, that it would begin installing its new product on commercial customers' homes "within the next few months".[24] The Tesla Solar Roof proved to be challenging to build. Panasonic had to solve several engineering problems to make the modules work, and when completed, Tesla insisted on additional development to make the modules appear black instead of the blue-green color of the initial units.[16] Tesla blamed the delays in Solar Roof production on its focus on the ramp up of the Tesla Model 3.[25] The factory was not able to start commercial production of the shingles until March 2020[26] and Panasonic left the joint venture in early 2020.[27][28] Even after the Solar Roof entered production, Tesla struggled to produce the modules in great volume. Three years later, in 2023, industry analyst Wood Mackenzie reported that only 3,000 Solar Roofs are in use.[16] In a tweet, Tesla disputed the Wood Mackenzie report, calling it “incorrect by a large margin,” but did not clarify what was incorrect.[29]

In Buffalo in 2020, the company started building Superchargers for its electric vehicles.[1] Tesla also moved more than 600 employees to the building to be entry-level data analysts for its Autopilot software.[14][16]

The technology used incorporates nanotechnology, for which New York colleges and universities such as SUNY Poly and Erie Community College have developed programs and research,[30] with the latter offering semiconductor and nanotechnology programs specifically for employment at the gigafactory.[31] A spokesperson for the Empire State Development Corporation, the agency that has oversight of the factory, said that in 2022 the company complied with its investment and employment goals.[16]