Tesla is continuing to lead the way with its new gigantic 10-million-square-foot factory in East Austin, Texas.
Tesla has historically worked with companies around the world to obtain materials and components for its batteries but has recently made a push to manufacture those components in the United States.
The company also recently began shifting more and more of its battery cell production from its factory in Berlin, Germany, to Gigafactory Texas, as Electrek reported.
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The move might have something to do with the $7,500 tax credit Tesla buyers may be eligible to receive if a certain percentage of components are made in the U.S., as part of the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act.
Whatever the reason, Tesla has recently accomplished a first for American electric vehicle battery manufacturers.
Rohan Patel, senior global director of public policy and business development at Tesla, said, per the Austin Monitor: "The first American battery manufacturer at scale is happening here, and the first American cathode manufacturing — which is the most expensive part of the battery — is happening at Giga Texas."
A cathode is one of the electrodes in an EV battery — charged ions move between the cathode and anode as the battery is charged and discharged.
Cathode manufacturing is not the only thing of note occurring at Gigafactory Texas, either. When completed, the factory will boast the largest rooftop solar installation in the world, according to the Austin Monitor. The factory will have 70,000 rooftop solar panels capable of producing 30 megawatts of power. That's about enough power to supply more than 5,000 homes, based on data from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
In a rendering of the plan, the spaces on the roof that weren't covered with solar panels spelled out "TESLA," according to the Austin Monitor.
The use of 70,000 solar panels to help power the factory rather than dirty energy sources will reduce the release of harmful carbon pollution into the atmosphere by the tons.
"We finished phase 1, so we can pull roughly 10 megawatts," Logan Grant, Tesla senior manager of factory engineering said, per the Monitor, in a presentation to the Travis County Commissioners Court in October. He added: "When it's all said and done, it will be 30 megawatts, which will be the largest rooftop solar I think in the world."
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