33 Facts About SolarCity

SolarCity Corporation was a publicly traded company headquartered in Fremont, California that sold and installed solar energy generation systems as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

SolarCity was founded on July 4,2006, by Peter and Lyndon Rive, the cousins of SpaceX and Tesla, Inc CEO Elon Musk, and nephews of model Maye Musk.

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.

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 was the chairman and helped start the company.

In 2013, SolarCity was the leading residential solar installer in the US Solar Power World magazine listed it as the number two overall solar installation company in the US In 2013, SolarCity purchased Paramount Solar from Paramount Equity for $120 million.

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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.

In late 2015, SolarCity withdrew from solar sales and installation in Nevada, following the decision by the state's Public Utilities Commission 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 state's net metering rule.

SolarCity cut the salaries of its two co-founders from $275,000 to $1 per year.

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 May 2008, SolarCity completed what was, at the time, the largest commercial solar installation in San Jose, at the North Campus of eBay.

In July 2008, SolarCity completed what was, at the time, the largest commercial solar installation in San Francisco, consisting of 1,606 solar photovoltaic 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, Intel, and the US military.

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 in 2013.

In 2010, SolarCity acquired Building Solutions, a home energy audit firm and began to offer energy efficiency 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 improvements.

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 to make electric car charging available for free to owners of Tesla Roadster cars traveling on US Route 101 in California between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In 2016, SolarCity ran pilot project to test a grid backup resource by installing GridLogic software and 10-kilowatt-hour Tesla Powerwall battery packs in 500 California homes.

In 2014, SolarCity announced plans to build a new manufacturing facility in Buffalo, New York, in coordination with the SUNY Polytechnic Institute, after acquiring Silevo, a maker of high-efficiency solar modules.

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.

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.

SolarCity 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".

SolarCity stated that its values were correct and complied with the Treasury Department guidelines.

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Since 2006, SolarCity has lowered the minimum FICO score required for customers to get the leasing deals.

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.

SolarCity installed SolarEdge inverter systems with a type of DC-DC converter called an optimizer.

In June 2017, the Vermont Public Service Board found that SolarCity was implementing solar projects in Vermont without approval required by law.

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.

SolarCity installed and manages solar panels on the roofs of more than 240 Walmart stores.

SolarCity partnered with banks, large corporations, and the asset-backed market to create project finance funds to finance its lease and power purchase agreement options.

SolarCity was involved in a collaboration with the program along with the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Hawaiian Electric Industries.