Tesla underdelivered in its awesome promise to build a 70-megawatt solar panel array on top of its Nevada Gigafactory. Instead, the automotive company downgraded its goal to 24-megawatt solar arrays by the end of 2022.
For what it's worth, Elon Musk's company initially aimed to have the largest solar rooftop in the U.S.
Many might be familiar with Tesla's pattern to advertise amazing goals, only to disappoint fans and investors with its underwhelming progress.
Taken from a report in Electrek, Tesla said a few years back that "GF1 (Gigafactory 1) is an all-electric factory with no fossil fuels (natural gas or petroleum) directly consumed. We will be using 100% sustainable energy through a combination of a 70 MW solar rooftop array and solar ground installations. The solar rooftop array is ~7x larger than the largest rooftop solar system installed today."
Musk himself dropped the promise to have Tesla at 100 percent renewable energy by 2019 or 2020
Gigafactory should be on 100% renewable energy (primarily solar with some wind) by next year. Rollout of solar already begun.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 8, 2018
This statement excited many during its reveal. The Tesla Gigafactory 1 was already getting famous for its enormous and advanced automotive production technology. Adding a self-sustainable feature from its rooftop solar array should greatly improve its valuation.
Note that the Tesla Gigafactory, which has over 5.3 million square feet of operational space, is still expanding its building. By January 7, YouTuber Trailblazers HQ estimated the building to barely reach 30% completion.
What Went Wrong with Tesla Solar Rooftop?
Simply put, Tesla broke its recent promise by underestimating time and construction. Solar array construction started in 2018 and expanded in these last few years, but never on the scale where Tesla aimed to complete.
Electrek reported that the company only deployed 3.2-megawatt solar arrays by August.To emphasize, Tesla only built 3.2-megawatt in four years instead of the proposed 70-megawatt. For many others on the internet, this was a disappointing performance.
Tesla walked back on its word and recently tweeted a much more believable goal to reach 24-megawatts by the end of 2022. The number is close to a third of its initial promise.
Gigafactory 1 will have the largest rooftop solar array in the world upon completion – 70MW or roughly ~200,000 solar panels pic.twitter.com/OMkfXg3r7a
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 13, 2018
Tesla Solar Panels: Largest Solar Roof Installation
In a report from Teslarati, the automotive company continues to aim to be "the largest rooftop solar installation in the US." Notably, there are many bigger solar farms than Tesla's 24-megawatt, but the company specifically targets rooftop solar arrays.
Tesla reportedly seems determined to use sustainable energy to fuel their production on automotive powertrains and batteries. Aside from its Gigafactory Nevada, Tesla was reported to install solar panels on its Fremont Factory, Lathrop factory, and Gigafactory New York.
Admittedly, on its long-term potential, Tesla might grow to have the largest footprint and production in the automotive industry. However, it is a wait-and-see period whether Tesla could keep its promise this time.
Tesla might have broken many promises, similar to the self-driving software of its cars and Bitcoin transactions. However, at times, it does seem believable that they could achieve bigger successes.
