Tesla is considering building a $10.1 billion solar cell manufacturing facility in Texas.
Associate Editor
Tesla is considering building a $10.1 billion solar cell manufacturing facility in Texas.
Tesla is considering a $10.1 billion solar cell manufacturing facility in Fort Bend County, Texas, a project that would significantly expand the company’s domestic solar production capabilities and potentially create nearly 9,700 full-time jobs if approved.
According to documents filed with the Texas Comptroller’s Office, the proposed facility, known as “Project Sun City,” would be built on a 3,050-acre site near Richmond, Texas. The plant would manufacture photovoltaic solar cells and modules, with construction targeted for completion in 2028 and operations beginning in early 2029, says a report from CultureMap Houston.
Tesla is seeking tax incentives through Texas’ Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation (JETI) Act and indicated in the filing that the Fort Bend County site would be less competitive without state support. The company is reportedly considering other U.S. locations as well, though they were not identified in its filing.
The proposal aligns with CEO Elon Musk’s broader push to expand U.S. solar manufacturing. Speaking at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, Musk said Tesla and SpaceX are working toward a combined goal of producing 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing capacity annually in the United States within roughly three years.
“That’ll probably take us three years or something,” Musk said, adding that despite China’s low-cost production, it would be “worth doing large-scale solar” manufacturing domestically, according to Construction Dive.
The planned investment comes as Tesla appears to be moving away from one of its most high-profile solar products. Multiple reports, including one from Yahoo Finance, indicate the company has removed its Solar Roof offering from its website after years of struggling to meet deployment targets.
The product, introduced following Tesla’s 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, was designed to integrate photovoltaic technology directly into roofing materials. However, industry estimates cited by Canary Media show Tesla installed only about 3,000 Solar Roof systems through the end of 2022, far below Musk’s earlier goal of 1,000 installations per week.
Rather than exiting the solar market, Tesla appears to be refocusing on conventional solar panels and energy storage products. Yahoo Finance reported that the company continues to manufacture traditional solar panels at its Buffalo, New York, facility and is expanding its energy-generation and storage operations.
Canary Media also reported that Tesla recently brought 300 megawatts of manufacturing capacity online for a newly designed residential solar panel in Buffalo, marking the first solar panel fully designed and manufactured by Tesla.
The Texas facility would represent a substantial increase from Tesla’s current solar manufacturing footprint. According to Construction Dive, Tesla currently designs its solar products in California and assembles them in Buffalo, where annual production capacity exceeds 300 MW.
If completed, the Texas project would become one of the largest manufacturing investments the company has proposed and could help address a domestic shortage of solar cell production capacity as demand for U.S.-made solar components continues to grow.
The project would also add to a growing list of large-scale manufacturing investments by Musk-led companies in Texas. Construction Dive says SpaceX recently moved forward with plans for a $16.8 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility in Grimes County, Texas, which is expected to create approximately 3,000 jobs.
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