SolarCity enters Rhode Island market

OREANDA-NEWS. June 10, 2015. SolarCity is expanding its residential solar leasing business into Rhode Island.

With operations beginning in Rhode Island, SolarCity now servies 18 states, including such key markets as Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. Together, these markets comprised about 4,650MW of the 5,500MW total residential solar capacity installed in the US from 2011 to 2014, SolarCity said today. In Rhode Island, SolarCity says it could serve up to 500,000 residents, or about half the state's population.

SolarCity has expended to nearly all the state markets in the US northeast, except for Vermont and Maine, which have presented barriers to entry for the company.

"Some of the external factors include the price of energy, geography, solar resources, state and local policy and population," SolarCity told Argus. "We continue to assess these factors in new states and markets at a rapid pace for possible growth opportunities nationwide."

But in the coming years, deployment of solar systems in the northeast could accelerate, given the proximity to SolarCity's planned solar photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in Buffalo, New York, set to be the largest solar manufacturing facility in North America. The company says the facility is expected to produce 1,000MW worth of modules by the end of 2016.

The Buffalo facility is a part of SolarCity's strategy to bring long-term economies of scale to panel supply in the US, integrating its domestic supply chain and pairing installations with residential battery storage technology.