The product of Chinese solar module provider Longi Solar was recently seen in the Tesla Austin super factory.
Located in Texas, the super factory will be officially put into use in 2022, with a total investment of more than US $10 billion. It mainly produces Model Y and Cybertruck.
Musk’s choice is more or less intriguing, since he has always been interested in solar energy. After acquired SolarCity in 2016, Tesla has focused on solar panels, especially those on rooftops. Tesla actually launched the concept of BIPV (building integrated photovoltaic) on its own.
Longi soon joined the BIPV track and realized official mass production of their first BIPV product “LONGI Roof” in July 2020, which were put into use in Jiangsu Province in January 2021. Unlike SolarCity, which focuses on residential rooftops, Longi’s customers are mainly government enterprises. The company’s module has the largest shipment volume in the world, in addition to Tesla, it also has many overseas heavy buyers.
Tesla, at present, has applied solar energy on the rooftops of more than one super factory. In Nevada, Tesla began laying in 2018, with 3.2 MW solar panels installed by September 2021, and will increase to 24 MW by the end of 2022, by then, all completed rooftops will be installed with solar panels.
SolarCity is completely different from enterprises like Longi and JA Solar for the time being. In the context of Chinese national goal of reaching carbon emission peak and realizing carbon neutrality, there may be more competition in the future.
