Featured in Mountains to climb – 05-2026

The best laid plans

Elon Musk made the latest in a series of ambitious claims about his business plans on a stage in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, in January. He said SpaceX and Tesla teams are working separately to build 100 GW a year of solar manufacturing capacity in the United States, a process that he expects will take about three years. pv magazine USA’s Ben Zientara assesses the likelihood of these plans coming to fruition.

By

Ben Zientara

11 May 2026

To anyone who knows about US solar manufacturing, Elon Musk’s claim that SpaceX and Tesla are working to build 100 GW of annual PV manufacturing capacity might seem unachievable. As 2025 came to a close, experts from Intertek CEA estimated the total manufacturing capacity of solar module facilities in the United States to be slightly greater …

This article is part of pv+

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