East Austin factory would feature world’s largest rooftop solar array

Tesla’s factory in East Austin would be the largest rooftop solar installation in the world when complete, company officials say. 

“We finished phase 1, so we can pull roughly 10 megawatts. When it’s all said and done, it will be 30 megawatts, which will be the largest rooftop solar I think in the world,” Logan Grant, Tesla senior manager of factory engineering, said in a presentation to the Travis County Commissioners Court.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Brigid Shea asked, “Is that what makes it black? Because it looks like it’s covered in white in one of the other photos.”

“The panels hadn’t been placed yet” in some of the earlier photos of the factory, said Walter Gonzalez of Tesla’s public policy team. 

In the rendering projected during the presentation, the roof is covered in dark solar panels except for blank spaces that spell out the word Tesla. 

When complete, the roof of the 10-million-square-foot factory will boast 70,000 rooftop solar panels, Tesla officials said. 

The solar milestone would be one of many firsts at the factory.

“The first American battery manufacturing at scale is happening here and the first American cathode manufacturing – which is the most expensive part of the battery – is happening at Giga Texas,” said Rohan Patel, Tesla’s senior global director of public policy and business development. 

The Tesla factory, located between State Highway 130 and the Colorado River in East Austin, makes the Tesla Model Y SUV. The company also plans to manufacture the long-delayed Cybertruck there as well.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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