SolarCity, one of the industry’s biggest players, is setting up shop in Sussex County.
The California company will open a 9,600-square-foot operations site in Seaford. A spokesman for SolarCity said 10 people have been hired, with another dozen positions open. The center will serve Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The state had previously been served from offices in Maryland and New Jersey.
Solar City is believed to be the largest residential solar installer in the nation. The move could change the competitive landscape in southern Delaware, which has been served by smaller companies.
The center will provide an economic boost to a community that has suffered from a long-running loss of jobs at the former DuPont nylon plant now operated by Invista.
“Solar works for homeowners and businesses all across the region,” said Leon Keshishian, SolarCity’s regional vice president on the east coast. “We provide Delaware residents and businesses the option to reduce their utility bills, lock in their solar energy costs and do something positive for the environment at the same time.”
SolarCity is expanding to Delaware, due in large part, to the efforts of the state, including its strong support of fair net metering policies and a cost-effective renewable portfolio standard, a release stated.
SolarCity installs solar panels in homes and businesses with no up-front cost, with the company maintaining the systems in a lease-style arrangement. The approach is expected to spur growth in installations.
Delaware has mandates calling for solar to be used as part of the state’s alternative energy mix. That has led to large installations of panels in the state’s three counties.
Solar has its critics, who believe current mandates in Delaware have held back the economy through higher electricity costs at a time when energy prices remain low. At the same time, however, the cost of producing solar power has dropped over the years, softening some of that opposition.
Last year, SolarCity did its first large installation in Delaware when it put panels in a park in Delaware City in New Castle County.
In New Castle County, large industrial installations have taken place at brownfield clean-up sites in Wilmington and Newport that could not be put to any other use.
New Castle County is also home to Motech Americas, a part of a solar panel producer headquartered in Taiwan. Motech has produced a large number of solar panels for commercial installation in the region at its site in Glasgow, south of Newark.
Publicly traded SolarCity was founded on a concept put forth by Elon Musk, a California entrepreneur who is best known for his work in commercial space transportation and as the founder of electric car maker Tesla.
