Tesla executives announce that the company is expanding its solar strategy to include more employees.
According to senior executives, Tesla is currently hiring to help support Elon Musk’s plan to become the largest U.S. manufacturer for solar energy components.
The posts indicate that 'the company is implementing Musk's vision to set up 100 gigawatts domestic solar production. Musk announced this goal?last?month.
Seth Winger wrote, "This is a bold, ambitious project," in one of many posts made by Tesla executives on LinkedIn. We need ambitious, audacious engineers and scientists who can help us scale up to a massive scale. Come join us if you want to help solve manufacturing problems with breakneck speed, and the U.S. achieve breakthroughs in renewable energy generation.
The Tesla website posted a job for a Solar Manufacturing Development Engineer. It stated that the company's aim is to "deploy a 100GW solar manufacturing facility from raw materials in the United States before the end 2028."
Musk has not announced a timetable for this goal, nor plans to increase hiring.
Tesla officials and Musk didn't immediately respond to comments.
Tesla's Director of Engineering Ralf Gomme and Bonne Eggleston - a Vice President overseeing the battery cell manufacturing - also shared this week their plans to hire in solar. Tesla has turned its attention to solar manufacturing as its EV sales have been declining. Last week, the company unveiled a new solar panel that it produces at its Buffalo, New York factory. This week, local media in China reported that Musk's delegations had visited several Chinese solar companies.
The location of the 100 GW production facility was unclear.
In an email, Pamm Lent said, "We haven't yet engaged with Tesla."
Musk has said that batteries and solar are the best way to add large quantities of electricity to power grids at a moment when demand is soaring from data centers related to the expansion in artificial intelligence.
These views are in conflict with those of U.S. president Donald Trump. Musk was previously the head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Trump's administration. Trump has called renewable energies expensive and inefficient and signed legislation that slashes clean energy subsidies.
SOLAR IN SPACE
Musk also mentioned the possibility of placing solar panels in orbit, indicating potential synergies between his SpaceX company. It would be an incredible feat to set up 100 GW in solar manufacturing in America in just a few years.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. has 65 GW in solar module capacity and only 3.2 GW in solar cell capacity. The cells are the key components that convert sunlight into energy. They are more expensive and complex to produce. China dominates the production of solar cells. The U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in solar production thanks to the law that was passed by former president?Joe Biden. This created tax incentives for manufacturing clean energy. Despite this, many factories that were announced never came to fruition and producers struggled against cheap imports. Musk is well-known for his big promises and ambitious timelines, which often don't pan out.
Jeff Osborne, TD Cowen's analyst, said that while Musk's long term forecasts are usually accurate in their direction, the near-term deadlines for many projects, particularly those involving new manufacturing eco-systems, have often been missed. We consider these targets to be 'aspirational, rather than likely in the U.S. Solar Supply Chain midterm. Musk has also promised that Teslas without drivers will arrive by the end of every year since 2016. Musk predicted in July that Tesla robotaxis will serve "half of the U.S. population" by the end the year.
Tesla operates a limited robotaxi in Austin and has only recently removed the human safety monitors from certain vehicles. Tesla's "Full Self Driving" (FSD), a service it offers vehicle owners, requires a human driver to be attentive. Tesla has struggled in the past with solar manufacturing. In 2016, the company purchased a Buffalo, New York facility through its acquisition of SolarCity. At that time it said that they aimed to ramp-up to 1 GW solar production.
Tesla's manufacturing partner Panasonic left the project by 2020. The facility is now used to manufacture superchargers, in addition to the premium solar roof tiles that make up only a small portion of the company's business. (Reporting and editing by Diane Craft, David Gregorio, and Nichola Groom)
(source: Reuters)
