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SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in
Fremont, California Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San Fra ...
that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company was founded on July 4, 2006, by Peter and
Lyndon Rive Lyndon Rive (born 22 January 1977) is a South African businessman known as the co-founder of SolarCity, and its CEO until 2016. SolarCity is a provider of photovoltaic systems and related services. Rive co-founded SolarCity with his brother P ...
, the cousins of
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
and
Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla designs and manufactures electric vehicles (electric cars and trucks), battery energy storage from home to grid- ...
CEO
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
, and nephews of model
Maye Musk Maye Musk (''née'' Haldeman; born April 19, 1948) is a model and dietitian. She has been a model for 50 years, appearing on the covers of magazines, including a ''Time'' magazine health edition, ''Women's Day'', international editions of ''V ...
. Tesla acquired SolarCity in 2016, at a cost of approximately $2.6 billion and reorganized its solar business into
Tesla Energy Tesla Energy is the clean energy subsidiary of Tesla, Inc. that develops, manufactures, sells and installs photovoltaic solar energy generation systems, battery energy storage products, as well as other related products and services to resid ...
. SolarCity heavily focused on door-to-door sales of leased systems, where customers would pay no upfront costs, but agreed to purchase the power generated by those panels from the company for 20 years. The business model became the most popular in the US and made the company the largest residential solar installer, but it caused SolarCity to have over $1.5 billion in debt by the time of its acquisition in 2016. Prior to its acquisition by Tesla, the two companies had a close relationship. SolarCity offered free charging to Tesla Roadster owners at its charging stations, SolarCity became one of the first installers of the
Tesla Powerwall The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary home energy storage product manufactured by Tesla Energy. The Powerwall stores electricity for solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting, and backup power. The Power ...
home
energy storage Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery. Energy comes in ...
battery, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk served as the chairman of SolarCity.


History

SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and
Lyndon Rive Lyndon Rive (born 22 January 1977) is a South African businessman known as the co-founder of SolarCity, and its CEO until 2016. SolarCity is a provider of photovoltaic systems and related services. Rive co-founded SolarCity with his brother P ...
,Solarcity
''Time Magazine'', April 17, 2008.
based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin,
Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
, who was the chairman and helped start the company. By 2009, solar panels it had installed were capable of generating 440 
megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units, International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), ...
s (MW) of power. In 2011, the company launched their expansion to the East Coast with the acquisition of the solar division of Clean Currents and groSolar. Following the acquisitions, SolarCity expanded operations on the East Coast and opened in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Florida, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In 2013, SolarCity was the leading residential solar installer in the U.S. Solar Power World magazine listed it as the number two overall solar installation company in the U.S. In 2013, SolarCity purchased Paramount Solar from
Paramount Equity GoodLeap, formerly Loanpal, is a Financial technology, finance technology company that provides financing options for the residential solar energy industry. The company was founded in 2003 as Paramount Equity and was later rebranded to Loanpal. I ...
for $120 million. By 2015, its installed panels were capable of generating 870 MW of solar power and accounted for approximately 28% of non-utility solar installations in the U.S. that year. In October 2014, SolarCity announced it would be offering up to $200 million in solar bonds in its first registered public offering of bonds in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. In March 2016,
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
bought $90 million of SolarCity stock. In
net metering in Nevada Net metering in Nevada is a public policy and political issue surrounding the rates that Nevada public utilities are required to pay to purchase excess energy produced by electric customers who generate their own electricity, such as through roofto ...
case in late 2015, SolarCity withdrew from solar sales and installation in Nevada, following the decision by the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to raise the monthly service charge for rooftop solar customers and progressively reduce the return on solar energy sold back into the grid under the net metering rule. Under the new rules, the monthly service charge imposed on Nevada Power's rooftop solar-generating customers rose from $12.75 to $17.90 and was scheduled to rise to $38.51 by January 1, 2020; simultaneously, the rates given to rooftop solar generating customers for their surplus solar energy were also clawed back and were to continue to decline over the ensuing four years. As a result, SolarCity eliminated more than 550 jobs in Nevada.


Workforce reduction

During 2015, the number of employees had grown by 69%; at the end of 2015, SolarCity had 15,273 employees. To preserve cash, SolarCity eliminated 20% of its total workforce in 2016, ending 2016 with 12,243 employees. This was the first time in the company's history that it cut its workforce. The job cuts affected workers across the entire company: 22% of jobs were cut in operations, installations, and manufacturing; and 27% in sales and marketing. In August 2016, the company announced that it planned to take up to $5 million in charges to cover its planned layoffs. The company also cut the salaries of its two co-founders from $275,000 to $1 per year.


Acquisition by Tesla, Inc.

On August 1, 2016, Tesla announced that it would be acquiring the company in an all-stock $2.6 billion transaction as Tesla's mission since its inception has been "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." As part of Elon Musk's "The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan," Tesla sought to expedite the world's move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy. The proposal for acquisition was approved by antitrust regulators. More than 85% of unaffiliated shareholders (affiliated shareholders are those who hold executive positions at either company) from Tesla and SolarCity voted to approve the acquisition on November 17, 2016, allowing the acquisition to close on November 21, 2016. Some investors criticized the deal, calling it "a misguided effort to rescue two companies that depend on investors and the government for operating cash." In April 2022 a Delaware court ruled in favor of defendant Elon Musk in a shareholder lawsuit over Tesla's $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity. “ heTesla Board meaningfully vetted the Acquisition, and Elon did not stand in its way,” read the opinion by Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights. “Equally if not more important, the preponderance of the evidence reveals that Tesla paid a fair price — SolarCity was, at a minimum, worth what Tesla paid for it,” Slights added. The court also noted that since the acquisition "Tesla’s value has massively increased". In April 2017, the chief policy officer of SolarCity, John Wellinghoff, left SolarCity. In June 2017, Lyndon Rive left SolarCity, and Peter Rive left shortly thereafter. By 2019, Tesla's solar panel market share was falling, prompting the company to cut its sales force. Revenue from Tesla's energy generation and storage operations from January to September 2019 fell 7% from a year earlier to $1.1 billion.


Products and services


Solar leasing

In 2008, SolarCity entered the solar leasing market with a new solar lease option for homeowners: leasing rooftop solar to customers who would pay no upfront costs. In exchange, customers paid for 20 years for power generated by those panels. SolarCity's solar lease allowed some homeowners to pay less each month than they previously paid for electricity from the utility company. The "no-money-down solar" business model became the most popular in the U.S. and increased installations, but it also added considerably to SolarCity's debt, accounting for about half of the company's over $3 billion debt in 2016. The business model was also criticized by consumer advocates and government regulators.


Commercial solar panels

In May 2008, SolarCity completed what was, at the time, the largest commercial solar installation in San Jose, at the North Campus of
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
. In July 2008, SolarCity completed what was, at the time, the largest commercial solar installation in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
, consisting of 1,606
solar photovoltaic A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and c ...
panels for British Motor Car Distributors. SolarCity introduced additional financing options for businesses in 2009 and built multiple solar projects for other large organizations, including
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
,
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...
, and the U.S. military. In 2013, the company established
GivePower GivePower is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that develops clean water and energy systems in communities across the world. GivePower has installed 2,650 solar power installations in villages across 17 different countries and in underdeveloped ...
as a non-profit branch of its solar business, which is an independent enterprise.


Installation technology

SolarCity used proprietary mounting hardware that "snaps together" on rooftops eliminating the need for rails and utilized skirts to hide the hardware and panel edges. SolarCity acquired the mounting technology when it purchased
Zep Solar Zep Solar was a manufacturer of mounting and grounding equipment for photovoltaic solar energy generation systems. The company was founded in 2009 in San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish for " St. Raphael", ) is a city and the count ...
in 2013. The "railless" system allowed installers to install solar panels on the roof more quickly than other installation approaches. Traditionally, solar panel installation had required workers to first outfit roofs with mounting rails and then attach solar panels to those rails. Tesla Energy continues to use the technology for its solar panel installations.


Energy efficiency evaluations and retrofits

In 2010, SolarCity acquired Building Solutions, a home energy audit firm and began to offer
energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
evaluations and upgrades. SolarCity expanded its energy efficiency services to the East Coast and worked with Admiral's Bank of Boston in March 2012 to make a new loan available to finance
energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
improvements.


Electric vehicle chargers

In 2009, SolarCity entered the electric car charging business by buying the SolSource Energy business of Clean Fuel Connections, Inc. In 2011, SolarCity announced a partnership with
Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...
to make electric car charging available for free to owners of Tesla Roadster cars traveling on
U.S. Route 101 in California U.S. Route 101 (US 101) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway, stretching from Los Angeles, California to Tumwater, Washington. The California portion of US 101 is one of the last remaining and longest U.S. Routes s ...
between San Francisco and Los Angeles. However, in 2012, Tesla independently started deploying their own
Supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
stations.


SolarStrong project

SolarStrong was SolarCity's 5-year plan to build more than $1 billion in
solar photovoltaic A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and c ...
projects for privatized military housing communities across the United States. It was announced in late 2011. SolarStrong was carried out by SolarCity in cooperation with
Lend Lease Group Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate company that creates and invests in communities, workplaces, retail, and infrastructure projects, headquartered in Barangaroo, New South Wales, Australia. History Founding The company was establ ...
involving 124 military bases in 33 states. The financing included Bank of America Merrill Lynch, USRG Renewable Finance, and U.S. Bancorp. It had a partial $344 million federal loan guarantee through the U.S. Department of Energy Financial Institution Partnership Program; however, the guarantee was withdrawn after the project implementation started. The project started in 2011 with development of the
Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam (JBPHH) is a United States military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Hickam Air Force Base and the United States Navy's Naval Station Pearl Harbor, ...
in
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, followed by
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base Davis–Monthan Air Force Base (DM AFB) is a United States Air Force base southeast of downtown Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1925 as Davis–Monthan Landing Field. The host unit for Davis–Monthan AFB is the 355th Wing (355 WG) assi ...
in
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. In 2012, the project continued with the
Los Angeles Air Force Base Los Angeles Air Force Base (LAAFB) is a United States Space Force Base located in El Segundo, California. Los Angeles Air Force Base houses and supports the headquarters of the United States Space Force's Space Systems Command (SSC), which ...
in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, and
Peterson Air Force Base Peterson Space Force Base, previously Peterson Air Force Base, Peterson Field, and Army Air Base, Colorado Springs, is a U.S. Space Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is home to the Nor ...
, and
Schriever Air Force Base Schriever Space Force Base, previously Schriever Air Force Base, Falcon Air Force Base, and Falcon Air Force Station, is a base of the United States Space Force located approximately east of Peterson Space Force Base near Colorado Springs in ...
in
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
.


Energy storage

In 2016, SolarCity ran pilot project to test a grid backup resource by installing GridLogic software and 10-kilowatt-hour
Tesla Powerwall The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary home energy storage product manufactured by Tesla Energy. The Powerwall stores electricity for solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting, and backup power. The Power ...
battery packs in 500 California homes. This concept was also tested in Vermont.


Giga New York

In 2014, SolarCity announced plans to build a new manufacturing facility (now known as the Gigafactory 2) in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, in coordination with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, after acquiring Silevo, a maker of high-efficiency solar modules. The initial manufacturing complex would be a facility that would cost $900 million and employ 1,500 workers in Buffalo and 5,000 statewide. With a planned capacity of one gigawatt of solar panels annually by 2019, the new plant would be the largest solar plant in the U.S. Groundbreaking for the project occurred in September 2014 with a target completion date of early 2016. The facility would be the largest of its kind in the
Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
.
Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
was to handle production at the Buffalo plant, investing $256 million. Panasonic and SolarCity/Silevo were developing similar but somewhat different
HIT Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
-technology, and Panasonic hoped to use SolarCity's wafers combining the two companies' technologies at an
efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...
of 22%. SolarCity expected demand to outstrip the Buffalo production of 10,000 solar panels per day and bought solar equipment from other manufacturers until more factories could be built. SolarCity was required to spend $5 billion over the next decade on the facility and create more than 1,460 direct manufacturing jobs. In February 2016, CEO Lyndon Rive announced that due to delays incurred in the supply of machinery for the plant, production would begin in summer 2017. New York State owns the building and most of the equipment, leasing it to SolarCity. Most of the work was completed by November 2016, when the
Buffalo Billion Buffalo Billion is a New York state government project led by former Governor Andrew Cuomo that aims to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo, New York area economy. The project uses a combination of state grants and tax breaks to spur economic ...
project was under investigation, delaying state payments to contractors, but not influencing progress on completion of construction. SolarCity started hiring for the facility in December 2016. Elon Musk announced in 2017 that production of Tesla's solar roof products would be moved to the Buffalo facility at the end of 2017. It was reported that as of August 2017, production of solar roof tiles had begun at the facility, and Tesla expected to continue to ramp up production through the rest of the year.Ayre, James
"Solar Roof Tile Production At Tesla's Buffalo "Gigafactory" Now Up & Running"
CleanTechnica.com, September 7, 2017
By the end of 2018, the facility employed about 800 workers. The state of New York required the company to employ at least 1,460 workers at the facility by April 2020 or face a $41.2 million penalty, and in February 2020, the company reported having 1,500 workers at the facility. Panasonic announced that they would cease operations at the facility in May 2020.


Lawsuits and investigations


Buffalo Billion

Buffalo Billion Buffalo Billion is a New York state government project led by former Governor Andrew Cuomo that aims to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo, New York area economy. The project uses a combination of state grants and tax breaks to spur economic ...
is a billion-dollar program launched by the administration of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to revitalize Buffalo, New York. One of the main features of the program was the solar panel factory to be leased by SolarCity in the High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend. The state appropriated $750 million in funding for the hub. According to ''Daily Energy Insider'', "The facility will have one
gigawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...
of annual solar capacity when it reaches full production and is expected to produce about 10,000
solar panel A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photo ...
s per day." On April 29, 2016, then-
U.S. Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...
Preet Bharara Preetinder Singh Bharara (; born October 13, 1968) is an Indian-born American lawyer, author, podcaster and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2017. He is curren ...
(of the Southern District of New York) began an investigation into state construction projects and contracts, including the Buffalo Billion. SolarCity was not the subject or focus of the investigation and was not involved in the vendor selection or contracting. SolarCity said that it was cooperating with federal agents who had been in contact with the company. According to ''The New York Times'', Buffalo Billion would benefit "a tangle of well-connected players – including developers and frequent donors to the governor – who have feasted on Buffalo Billion money". Cuomo strongly defended the project, noting that there had been a decrease in unemployment and an increase in spending around the Buffalo area. Three executives who worked for LPCiminelli Development faced a 14-count indictment for
wire fraud Mail fraud and wire fraud are terms used in the United States to describe the use of a physical or electronic mail system to fraud, defraud another, and are Federal crime in the United States, federal crimes there. Jurisdiction is claimed by the ...
and
bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...
and alleged
bid rigging Bid rigging is a fraudulent scheme in procurement auctions resulting in non-competitive bids and can be performed by corrupt officials, by firms in an orchestrated act of collusion, or between officials and firms. This form of collusion is illegal ...
of the SolarCity RiverBend construction contract. Additionally, five other people have been charged with related crimes. On May 18, 2016, the Public Authorities Control Board delayed a meeting at which it was set to approve $485 million in new funds for SolarCity. The New York state legislature planned to approve a budget in April 2017 that would give $500 million more into the Buffalo Billion program. In return, the legislature wanted the Cuomo administration to put more transparency into how the money is spent.


Oregon Attorney General investigation

On March 30, 2017, ''
The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'' said that
Campaign for Accountability Campaign for Accountability (CfA) is a liberal 501(c)(3) non-profit ethics watchdog group headquartered in Washington, D.C.Andy SherSen. Corker bites back at watchdog group's second ethics complaint against him ''Chattanooga Times Free Press'' ( ...
, a D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, and other groups have asked Oregon Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum Ellen F. Rosenblum (born January 6, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Oregon Attorney General since 2012. She is the first female state attorney general in Oregon's history, and previously was a judge on the Oreg ...
to investigate solar panel sales practices that "are designed to trick homeowners into buying or leasing solar panels" in violation of Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act. According to ''The Oregonian'', the request to Rosenblum "singled out one company: California-based SolarCity. It outlined several complaints filed against the solar giant by Oregonians who claimed they'd been misled about costs, tax credits and energy savings by the company." The Campaign for Accountability reviewed 58 complaints that consumers filed with the
Oregon Department of Justice The Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ), headed by the Oregon Attorney General (currently Ellen Rosenblum), is the main legal branch of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. The DOJ is part of Oregon's executive branch, and most of its em ...
and said that the complaints indicated "a widespread pattern of apparent fraud and abuse by solar companies." The Oregon Solar Energy Industry Association, however, said that it examined the complaints and "found the numbers to be relatively low – lower than those being cited by the Campaign for Accountability." Investigators determined that SolarCity attempted to "cheat the system" by inflating the cost of 14 commercial solar projects by more than 100% to qualify for higher state tax credits. SolarCity and its accountant were required to pay back $13 million to the state of Oregon. The investigation also found that "phony and misleading documents" were submitted for some projects, and there was a bribery scheme involving the projects' energy consultant and a state Energy Department manager. One of SolarCity's solar panel suppliers employed prisoners at the Federal Correctional Institution in
Sheridan, Oregon Sheridan is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States. Platted in the 1860s when it received a post office, the city was incorporated in 1880. A major fire burned much of the city in 1913, and a flood covered much of the city in 1964. The po ...
, to keep costs down.


"Solar by Degree" project

The company is involved in a case concerning Martin Shain, the lead energy consultant in a solar power project at two Oregon universities. Shain was indicted for forgery in Marion County in August 2016. He is a consultant for BacGen Technologies in Seattle, a key player in the controversial $24 million "Solar by Degree" project and is accused of "creating a phony invoice from a fictional subcontractor that was pivotal in getting nearly $12 million in tax credits from the Oregon Department of Energy". The project began in 2013 and was sponsored by the
Oregon University System The Oregon University System (OUS) was administered by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education (the "Board") and the Chancellor of the OUS, who was appointed by the Board. It was disbanded in June 2015. OUS was responsible for governing the s ...
; thousands of solar panels, generating millions of kilowatt hours of energy per year, were constructed on 21 acres on the campuses of
Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...
and the
Oregon Institute of Technology The Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) is a public polytechnic university in Oregon with a residential campus in Klamath Falls, Oregon, an urban campus in Wilsonville, Oregon, and additional locations in Salem and Seattle. Oregon Tec ...
in Klamath Falls. The state's case revolves around two documents, which include an invoice from Solar Foundations Systems dated February 25, 2011, and a December 2011 letter signed by Ryan Davies, the former head of RedCo, a Utah-based company, which was the second developer on the project. According to
KOIN-TV Koin or KOIN may refer to: * KOIN, a TV station in Portland, Oregon * Koin, Guinea Koin, Guinea (Pular: 𞤂𞤫𞤧-𞤯𞤢𞤤𞤭𞥅𞤪𞤫 𞤑𞤮𞤴𞤭𞤲) is a town and sub-prefecture in the Tougué Prefecture in the Labé Regi ...
, "The Davies letter reported $210,000 had been spent toward the project and that construction was progressing." The Solar Foundations invoice contains details of the construction of solar arrays. The invoice was necessary to provide proof of work on the project to get tax credits from the state. The "Solar by Degree" project received the tax credits, but it was later shown that the company named on the invoice, Solar Foundations, does not exist. In addition, Davies claims he did not write nor has ever seen the RedCo letter in question and that his name was forged. Relying on this evidence, the state claims Shain forged both documents. Shain denies forging the invoice and claims it was given to him by someone else involved in the project. The tax credits involved were given to SolarCity, the third developer in the project, along with its financial backers. According to ''The Oregonian'', "Those backers provide upfront financing for the projects in exchange for a share of the project revenues and the federal and state tax credits, which they can use to offset their own taxes." SolarCity stated, "We financed and constructed the projects in accord with the requirements of the Oregon Department of Energy." The company argues that the state hired Shain, and it had no knowledge of the phony documents in question; otherwise, it would have not pursued the endeavor.


Treasury Department inquiries

In 2012, the Treasury Department began investigative interviews of solar firms regarding their fair market value calculations for constructed solar energy systems. SolarCity stated that its values were correct and complied with the Treasury Department guidelines. SolarCity received roughly $501.2 million in credits up until December 31, 2015. In 2017, SolarCity settled the investigation by agreeing to pay $29.5 million without any admission of guilt or liability.


Customer litigation

Since 2006, SolarCity has lowered the minimum
FICO score A credit score is a number that provides a comparative estimate of an individual's creditworthiness based on an analysis of their credit report. It is an inexpensive and main alternative to other forms of consumer loan underwriting. Lenders, s ...
required for customers to get the leasing deals. It uses the score of 650 (a "fair"
credit rating A credit rating is an evaluation of the credit risk of a prospective debtor (an individual, a business, company or a government), predicting their ability to pay back the debt, and an implicit forecast of the likelihood of the debtor defaulting. ...
) as the cutoff. However, between 2014 and 2017, SolarCity signed long-term lease agreements with at least 14 homeowner customers right before the customers defaulted on their mortgages. The company has been named in 139 lawsuits where it is the defendant in legal proceedings based on "residential foreclosure action." In its response, SolarCity said in a statement to the ''New York Times'', "Out of more than 305,000 installed customers, SolarCity is currently involved in 139 such proceedings. The litigation is not adversarial – being named in the foreclosure proceeding provides us with advance notice that we need to reassign a contract, and many are immediately resolved with the relevant bank."


Customer cancellation investigation

The
Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...
(SEC) began investigating
Sunrun Sunrun is an American provider of photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Since its inception, the c ...
and SolarCity in May 2017 and were looking into whether they adequately disclosed canceled contracts. "Some customers say they canceled contracts after being strong-armed into solar-energy deals" and there have been hundreds of complaints to state attorneys general. The federal government is investigating whether solar companies are "masking how many customers they are losing." The SEC is involved because "investors use that cancellation metric as one way to gauge the companies' health." According to the ''Wall Street Journal'', "To generate business, solar companies have long relied on thousands of salespeople who knock on doors, make hundreds of cold calls and even trail people as they shop at retailers like Home Depot Inc., according to salespeople, executives and homeowners."


FCC receiving radio interference complaints

SolarCity installed SolarEdge inverter systems with a type of DC-DC converter called an optimizer. These systems cause radio interference as documented in April 2016 QST magazine a publication of the
ARRL The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska of ...
.


Vermont projects without approval

In June 2017, the
Vermont Public Service Board The Vermont Public Utility Commission (formerly known as the Vermont Public Service Board) is a government agency of the State of Vermont that supervises the rates, quality of service, and overall financial management of public utilities in Vermon ...
found that SolarCity was implementing solar projects in Vermont without approval required by law. According to Vermont Public Radio, Public Service Board Chair Anthony Roisman sent a letter to SolarCity warning the company that it needed to get regulatory approval before installing solar generation equipment and attaching it to the state's electrical grid. Roisman wrote, "Over the past few months, my office has observed a pattern of procedural issues with net-metering applications being pursued by your company." Officials at the company worked quickly to respond to the issue.


Allegations of faked sales numbers

In July 2018, three former employees filed a lawsuit against SolarCity, alleging that the corporation had approved the creation of "fake sales accounts", which resulted in an "unreasonably high valuation of SolarCity" for investors. After allegedly informing management, including CEO Elon Musk, of these incidents, the employees were allegedly fired, which they argue contravenes California's whistleblower protection laws. A Tesla spokesman denied these allegations. On June 5, 2020, the case was dismissed with prejudice.


Walmart lawsuit and Project Titan

SolarCity installed and manages solar panels on the roofs of more than 240 Walmart stores. On August 21, 2019, Walmart filed a lawsuit against Tesla, seeking reimbursement for millions of dollars in damages and release from contracts, claiming that fires on the roofs of seven of those stores since 2012 were caused by SolarCity's "negligent installation and maintenance." The suit was settled on November 5, 2019, and the terms were not disclosed. A joint statement provided by Tesla stated the companies said they were "pleased to have resolved the issues raised by Walmart" concerning the installations, and looked forward to "a safe re-energization of our sustainable energy systems." Walmart had accused Tesla of "widespread, systematic negligence" and ignoring prudent industry practices by relying on untrained and unsupervised personnel to install and maintain its panels, and prioritizing speed and profit over safety. At around the start of the lawsuit, it was revealed that Tesla had initiated a secretive program, called Project Titan, to "replace solar-panel parts that could cause fires" as early as the previous summer. From a resource perspective, Project Titan involved "ordering supplies including ladders and tool belts and sent crews out around the United States" to approximately 50 cities as well as replacements for the specific parts believed to be causing fires: Amphenol H4 connectors and SolarEdge optimizers.


The Checks and Balances Project

SolarCity indirectly funds a political advocacy group known as the Checks and Balances Project. The project has criticized the elected members of the
Arizona Corporation Commission The Arizona Corporation Commission is the Public Utilities Commission of the State of Arizona, established by Article 15 of the Arizona Constitution. Arizona is one of only fourteen states with elected commissioners. The Arizona Constitution exp ...
(the regulatory body that oversees electricity and utilities in Arizona) for being too well-connected to utility companies. The Checks and Balances Project has filed several requests for public records from the Arizona Corporation Commission. In July 2016, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
interviewed the head of Checks and Balances as part of a larger criminal investigation into the financing of certain Arizona statewide races in 2014.


Project financing and the Google Fund

SolarCity partnered with banks, large corporations, and the asset-backed market to create
project finance Project finance is the long-term financing of infrastructure and industrial projects based upon the projected cash flows of the project rather than the balance sheets of its sponsors. Usually, a project financing structure involves a number of equi ...
funds to finance its lease and
power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...
(PPA) options. Among SolarCity's better-known financing partnerships was a $280 million fund created with Google to finance residential solar installations in June 2011. The Google Fund was the largest fund of its kind in the U.S., and Google's largest investment in clean energy.


Trade organization and collaboration

The company is one of the founding members of The Alliance for Solar Choice, or TASC, which is a
rooftop photovoltaic power station A rooftop solar power system, or rooftop PV system, is a photovoltaic (PV) system that has its electricity-generating solar panels mounted on the rooftop of a residential or commercial building or structure. The various components of such a syste ...
solar
trade organization A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...
.


Government-funded collaboration

The SunShot Initiative is a national effort to support solar energy adoption to make solar energy affordable for all Americans. It is run by the US Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office and funds research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects. It is a collaboration of private companies, universities, state and local governments, and nonprofits, as well as national laboratories. The program began in 2011 with the initial goal of making solar energy competitive with traditional forms of electricity by 2020. By 2016, the program achieved 70% of the progress towards the 2020 goal. In the fiscal year 2012 Congressional budget, the program was appropriated $457 million. According to the US Department of Energy's appropriation request for that year, "The program also encourages Systems Integration by developing ''radically new approaches'' to reduce the cost and improve reliability and functionality of power electronics and supporting industry development through test and evaluation standards, and tools for understanding grid integration issues." SolarCity was involved in a collaboration with the program along with the Energy Department's
National Renewable Energy Laboratory The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. NREL is a federally funded research and d ...
and
Hawaiian Electric Industries Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (HEI; ) is the largest supplier of electricity in the state of Hawaii, supplying power to 95% of Hawaii's population through its electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawai'i Electric Light Comp ...
. Using government and taxpayer funds, SolarCity helped 2,500 Hawaii residential customers connect their solar power systems to the grid by the end of December 2015.


See also

*
Charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a piece of equipment that supplies electrical power for charging plug-in electric vehicles (including electric cars, electric trucks, electric ...
*
Efficient energy use Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a building allows it to use less heating and cooling energy to ...
*
List of energy storage projects This is a list of energy storage power plants worldwide, other than pumped hydro storage. Many individual energy storage plants augment electrical grids by capturing excess electrical energy during periods of low demand and storing it in o ...


References


External links

* {{Portal bar, Companies, Renewable Energy Elon Musk Tesla, Inc. Companies based in San Mateo, California Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Energy in the San Francisco Bay Area Solar energy companies of the United States Solar energy in California Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area American companies established in 2006 Energy companies established in 2006 Renewable resource companies established in 2006 2006 establishments in California 2012 initial public offerings 2016 mergers and acquisitions