Tesla has submitted plans to invest $10.1 billion in a massive solar cell manufacturing facility near Houston, Texas, marking a major step in chief executive Elon Musk’s strategy to scale up American solar power production.
According to regulatory filings submitted to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the proposal, codenamed Project Crystal Sun, would be situated in Fort Bend County. The facility is designed to produce photovoltaic cells and complete solar modules tailored for utility, commercial, and residential applications. If approved, the site is projected to generate 9,712 permanent full-time jobs alongside more than 1,000 construction roles, with building work potentially commencing this year ahead of commercial operations in early 2029.
The project aligns with a broader joint ambition outlined by Musk for Tesla and SpaceX to establish 100 gigawatts of domestic solar manufacturing capacity annually. Addressing delegates at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, Musk highlighted the economic rationale for expanding American production, noting that scaling domestic manufacturing is essential to compete with lower-cost international producers.
Project Crystal Sun would represent a dramatic expansion of Tesla’s current solar manufacturing operations, which are engineered in California and assembled at a facility in Buffalo, New York, producing over 300 megawatts per year. Tesla confirmed in the tax filings that it is evaluating competing locations across the United States, emphasizing that state property tax relief under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation (JETI) Act will be critical to securing the Fort Bend County site over alternative locations.
The expansion comes as Tesla prioritizes its energy generation and storage division, which generated $5.5 million in revenue during the first half of the year. While energy products currently account for a smaller share of overall earnings compared to electric vehicle sales, company leadership stressed during a recent earnings call that expanding advanced infrastructure and manufacturing capacity is vital to meet surging power demand driven by transport electrification and artificial intelligence.
