The SolarCity GigaFactory will be located at the Buffalo High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, a new START-UP NY site owned by the State University of New York’s Polytechnic Institute.  It is sited on approximately 88 acres in South Buffalo that was once home to a Republic Steel manufacturing facility.

Since RiverBend was first unveiled in November 2013 by Governor Cuomo, SolarCity purchased Silevo, one of the designated anchor RiverBend tenants, and assumed an agreement with the State to increase more than fivefold the manufacturing capability of the clean energy facility. Silevo is a company that develops and manufactures high-efficiency silicon solar cells and modules.

SolarCity, the nation’s largest rooftop solar power provider, will spend $5 billion over the next decade in connection with the creation and operation of the facility in New York, and New York State will establish infrastructure, construct and own the 1.2 million square foot facility and purchase required equipment. The state investment will replicate the model created in Albany at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, where rather than giving money directly to private companies, the State invests in and owns core infrastructure and equipment and uses that equipment as the incentive to attract companies to establish themselves in these new high-tech facilities.

The initial RiverBend 88-acre site was expanded by 96 acres with the subsequent purchase of additional land from the City of Buffalo.