New satellite imagery shows tesla has aggressively expanded its array of solar panels on the roof of its Gigafactory in Nevada, meaning the company has taken an important step toward becoming a premier green factory. As early as 2017, Tesla announced the construction of a 70-megawatt photovoltaic roof here, but it was delayed for a long time in the early stages, and construction did not begin until 2018.
Infographic (from Tesla's official website)
Over the next few years, the project continued on and off, but never came close to the scale Tesla had talked about.
Last summer, the company revealed that it had completed a 3.2 MW deployment, while changing its expected target from 70 MW to 24 MW.
Even so, Tesla believes it can complete the construction of the industry's premier photovoltaic roof (rather than laying it on the ground).
After several months, the project seems to have made considerable progress. New satellite imagery suggests that Tesla has deployed several megawatts of photovoltaic roofs at its Nevada Gigafactory.
Image shown above, taken in September 2021. The image shown below is from the relatively new January 12, 2022.
Building Tesla pointed out that although it is difficult to determine Tesla's actual PV installed capacity, the changes over the past few months have been significant.
As for the factory itself, its size has also expanded for a long time. A large number of battery packs and drivetrains have been produced here, but the size of the facility has remained around 30% for the past four years.
As for when Tesla intends to complete the construction of this giant factory, there is no sign of achieving it in the short term.