As Channel 2 WGRZ in Buffalo reports, The region was to get jobs. Not just jobs but simply their solar roof. As Tesla states the solar roof replaces your existing roof. It also brings it to life with beautiful solar tiles. All that can power your home for decades with the energy you produce.
The deadline for those 1,460 jobs is April 1. According to the deal, if Tesla falls short it owes the state a penalty of $41.2 million.
With less than two and a half months to go, it’s not clear how close Tesla is to hitting that employment mark.
I mean it’s a solar roof. All providing the lowest cost per watt. That’s of any national solar panel provider and is comparable in price to a typical roof with solar panels.
As of June 2019, Tesla still needed to fill 600 more jobs. More noteworthy, I know they filled the jobs but not the roof!
Empire State Development was unable to update Tesla’s progress.
But Buffalo’s mayor did not seem worried when 2 On Your Side asked him about it.
“It’s been a while since we’ve gotten numbers from them but it looks like they will hit the target from everything we are hearing,” Byron Brown said.
But should Tesla fall short, Jim Heaney of Investigative Post suspects the state may cut Musk and Tesla a rather large break.
“I would not be the least bit surprised if there’s an amendment made to let Tesla out from all or some of the penalties,” Heaney said.
Now yes they have filled jobs! But where’s the solar tech. You see it’s not easy to make solar shingles. While I saw the updates needed we aren’t there yet! Just my gut here!
NYS HELPS OUT
Finally as written by The Buffalo News reporter David Robinson, New York State spent $958.6 million to build Tesla Inc.’s solar panel factory in South Buffalo and buy a big chunk of the equipment inside.
Now, auditors are saying the building and all that equipment is worth just under $75 million – or just 8% of what the state put into the RiverBend factory.
That stunning admission, included in financial statements from the nonprofit entity that owns the plant, is a recognition that the massive plant that the state custom-built for Tesla would have far less value to anyone else, should the electric vehicle maker’s solar energy business move out of the South Park Avenue facility.
It’s a lot like what happens when you buy a new car. As soon as you drive off the dealer’s lot, the car loses value. That’s because it isn’t new anymore. Only a new car loses value slowly. Yet over a long period of time. The huge write-down is an assessment. All by Fort Schuyler Management Corp. auditors and executives that the massive building and the highly specialized equipment purchased by the state would have far less value to anyone but Tesla.
So Tesla gets the write down, so use that savings to create a real solar roof!
Because as CNBC reports and in another sign of a strained partnership, Tesla and Panasonic are reportedly ending their joint production of solar cells at Tesla’s Gigafactory 2 facility in New York, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.
In conclusion, Tesla and Panasonic formed a joint venture. All to manufacture solar cells there four years ago. As part of their deal, Panasonic committed to paying for part of the equipment. All at the plant in Buffalo, New York. They began producing components for solar photovoltaics there in 2017. So NYS paid for it all and Panasonic said buh bye!
Yet as CleanTechnica reports Tesla says it intends to hire as many former Panasonic employees as possible at the Buffalo factory. Tesla also manufacturers charging equipment for its Supercharger network at the Gigafactory 2 facility.
Source: Channel 2 WGRZ in Buffalo, CNBC and Buffalo News
