Challenges remain for Buffalo Billion project featuring major SolarCity factory
New York’s efforts to recharge its upstate manufacturing sector by investing in a new SolarCity facility, planned to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere when it opens next year, remain under a cloud from federal and state investigations.
Some western New York state lawmakers have called for officials to take a closer look at the finances behind the so-called Buffalo Billion economic development initiative, the highlight of which is the construction of a 1.2 million-square-foot SolarCity factory.
New York State Sen. Robert Ortt (R-62nd), said that given the investigations surrounding the Buffalo Billion initiative and the fact that some past payments to construction workers were late, the funds behind the project should be scrutinized.
“The project is too important economically to the region and too big to not take notice of those red flags and to make sure that everything is being done as it should be when you are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money,” Ortt told Daily Energy Insider in a recent interview.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed $1 billion to the Buffalo area economy with the goal of creating thousands of jobs and spurring billions of dollars in private sector investment and economic activity.
As part of its Buffalo Billion plan, the state approved $750 million in funds for the High-Tech Manufacturing Innovation Hub at RiverBend, home of the new SolarCity GigaFactory. The facility, with one gigawatt of annual solar capacity when it reaches full production, is expected to produce approximately 10,000 solar panels per day.
Cuomo’s office has said that SolarCity, the nation’s largest solar power provider, is required to spend or incur approximately $5 billion over the next decade on its facility in New York. SolarCity, backed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, will create more than 1,460 direct manufacturing jobs at the new facility.
Ortt, along with Assemblyman Ray Walter, recently wrote a letter to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli asking him to objectively investigate the state contracting process, particularly as it relates to the Buffalo Billion.
“We need to be very cautious and we need to make sure that we’re getting all the information about this project and that the dollars are being spent in the way that they’re supposed to be,” Ortt said.
Cuomo’s office announced in April that Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had an ongoing investigation focused on the Buffalo Billion and a related initiative aimed at drawing nanotechnology jobs to the region.
“This investigation has recently raised questions of improper lobbying and undisclosed conflicts of interest by some individuals which may have deceived state employees involved in the respective programs and may have defrauded the state,” Governor’s Counsel Alphonso David said in a written statement in April.
Cuomo also hired Bart Schwartz as an independent investigator to lead the state’s review of all grants and approvals in certain programs, including the Buffalo Billion initiative.
“This is the first significant project of this magnitude that has been proposed for western New York in a long time, maybe in my lifetime,” Ortt said. “The integrity of that project cannot be undermined. It is important that people know this project is legitimate, that the money is being spent properly and that the integrity of the project is beyond question.”
Cuomo, meanwhile, has made a commitment to expanding solar energy in New York.
The governor pledged approximately $1 billion over 10 years to increase the number of solar electric systems across the state as part of his NY-Sun initiative in 2014. Earlier this year, Cuomo called for additional solar projects to be installed at 150,000 homes and businesses by 2020.
Cuomo’s Clean Energy Standard requires New York to use renewable energy sources to produce half of its electric power by 2030, with solar playing a role in that transformation.
