Elon Musk SolarCity Company intends to become the largest producer of solar panels in the world

Recently Elon Musk appears most often in the news in connection with his company Tesla Motors and SpaceX. However, his interests are not limited to electric vehicles and missiles. Another mask company, SolarCity, solar energy deals. This company builds solar power plants and is one of the largest in the United States, but does not produce solar panels. Or rather, did not occur until June 16, 2014. On this day SolarCity acquired producer panels Silveo for $ 350 million. At the time of purchase Silveo planned to build in New York state factory to produce solar panels combined capacity of one gigawatt per year. Musk confirmed that the plant will be built in the next two years.

Thus SolarCity is becoming one of the leading manufacturers of solar panels in the world. But much bigger plans Mask - even after a few years, he plans to build one or more plants, the performance of which will be much higher. Elon Musk believes that by 2040, solar energy will provide 40% of electricity in the world. To achieve this figure, it is necessary to put into operation 400 gigawatts of solar power per year.

The company has a unique Silveo технологией production of inexpensive and at the same time efficient solar cells. Their cells have an efficiency of 22% and at a relatively low until recently, production volumes are comparable with the less efficient cells that produce the most massively.

Plans for the construction of huge mask factory of solar panels in common with his project & quot; gigafabriki & quot; batteries. In the first place the batteries need a mask to build third-generation electric vehicle and make it a truly massive. However, electric vehicles are very stringent requirements on the battery capacity per unit mass - as soon as the battery capacity drops to 70% -80% of the original, the battery is no longer suitable for the car, as it significantly reduces running on a single charge. But on such a power the battery can serve for many years until its resources are not developed fully.

Thus, a few years later in the hands of the mask will be the largest (or, at least, one of the biggest) plant in the world that produce key components for the construction of solar power plants: panels and batteries. Not surprisingly, after the announcement shares SolarCity подскочили at 17, 5% .



Source: habrahabr.ru/post/226711/