While the days when Solyndra was a dirty word within solar may well feel as if they have been put behind the industry, the unconventional CIGS startups facilities are bursting back to life. The San Francisco Business Times has revealed today that SolarCity has "quietly leased" the facility and will establish its Silevo R&D team at the location.
Real estate reporter for the publication Nathan Donato-Weinstein reported that the 200,000 square feet property would house the expanding Silevo team.
"In this particular case, the Silevo team is growing and need a larger space," SolarCitys Jonathan Bass told Donato-Weinstein. "We looked at a number of different buildings, this was available and suits our needs."
GTM Researchs Shyam Mehta said that the SolarCitys choice in the former Solyndra building is a good one as the required infrastructure for a PV facility was already in place.
"Secondly, it's a good location for attracting candidates out of the Bay Area/Silicon Valley, as opposed to getting them to move across the country to snowy Buffalo, which is where the main plant is," Mehta told the San Francisco Business Times.
SolarCity is currently building what it plans will eventually be a GW-scale manufacturing facility in Buffalo, New York, using the Silevo technology. It acquired Silevo in June last year.
The Fremont-based Silevo employs a c-Si/a-Si tandem technology, with which it hopes to achieve both high efficiency and low cost production. Silevo has operated a 32 MW manufacturing facility in China.
SolarCity will announce its Q4 2014 earnings later today.
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