Subsidiary | |
Industry | Energy storage |
Founded | July 4, 2006 |
Founders |
Lyndon Rive Peter Rive |
Headquarters | San Mateo, California, U.S. |
Key people
|
Lyndon Rive, CEO Peter Rive, CTO Elon Musk, Chairman |
Number of employees
|
12,000+ (Dec 2016) |
Parent | Tesla Inc. |
Website | www |
38 photos of factory construction |
SolarCity Corporation is an American company that specializes in solar energy services. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, it is the largest solar energy services provider in the US. Among its primary services, the company designs, manufactures, permits, finances, sells, installs, maintains, and monitors solar energy systems and panels for residential, commercial and government applications. SolarCity sells renewable energy to customers at prices below utility rates, with a focus on reducing the cost of solar energy. The company has over 15,000 employees.
SolarCity has grown rapidly as well as the overall market in the United States, which has grown from 440 megawatts (MW) of solar panels installed in 2009 to 6,200 MW installed in 2014. The company has diversified in 2014 and 2015, with the aim of lowering costs and boosting sales. Currently, SolarCity installs more solar energy systems than any other company in the United States with just under 110,000 new installations in 2015. In 2015, SolarCity installed 870MW of solar power, approximately 28% of non-utility solar installation in the U.S. that year.
SolarCity's long-term agreements with its customers generate recurring payments and create a portfolio of high-quality receivables that it monetizes to further reduce the cost of making the switch to solar energy. It offers energy storage services through its parent company, Tesla Inc., including a turnkey residential battery backup service that incorporates Tesla's Powerwall.
SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who is the chairman and helped start the company. SolarCity has been the leading provider of residential solar power in California since 2007, its first full year of operation, according to the database kept by the California Solar Initiative and was the number one residential solar installer in the U.S. in 2013, according to GTM Research. In 2013, Solar Power World magazine listed SolarCity as the No. 2 overall solar installation company in the U.S. The company is one of the founding members of The Alliance for Solar Choice, or TASC, which is a rooftop photovoltaic power station solar advocacy organization. SolarCity purchased Paramount Solar from Paramount Equity for $120 million in 2013.