SOLAR CITY

History: Original SolarCity headquarters in Foster City, California Installation vehicles with the original SolarCity logo SolarCity vehicle with current SolarCity logo at night SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive,[2] based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who was the chairman and helped start the company.[3] By 2009, solar panels it had installed were capable of generating 440 megawatts (MW) of power.[4][5] In 2011, the company launched their expansion to the East Coast with the acquisition of the solar division of Clean Currents[6] and groSolar.[7] Following the acquisitions, SolarCity expanded operations on the East Coast and opened in Connecticut,[8] Pennsylvania,[9] South Carolina,[10] Florida,[11] Vermont,[12] and New Hampshire.[13] In 2013, SolarCity was the leading residential solar installer in the U.S.[14] and Solar Power World magazine listed it as the number two overall solar installation company in the U.S.[15] In 2013, SolarCity purchased Paramount Solar from Paramount Equity for $120 million.[16] By 2015, its installed panels were capable of generating 870 MW of solar power[17] and accounted for approximately 28% of non-utility solar installations in the U.S. that year.[4] In October 2014, SolarCity announced it would be offering up to $200 million in solar bonds, and would launch a new online website to allow purchasing the bonds; this was the first registered public offering of such bonds in the United States.[18] In March 2016, SpaceX bought $90 million of SolarCity stock.[19] In late 2015, SolarCity withdrew from solar sales and installation in Nevada, following the decision by the state's Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to raise the monthly service charge for rooftop solar customers and progressively reduce the return on solar energy sold back into the grid under the state's net metering rule.[20] Under the new rules, the monthly service charge imposed on Nevada Power's rooftop solar-generating customers rose from $12.75 to $17.90, and was scheduled to rise to $38.51 by January 1, 2020; simultaneously, the rates given to rooftop solar generating customers for their surplus solar energy were also clawed back and were to continue to decline over the ensuing four years.[20] As a result, SolarCity eliminated more than 550 jobs in Nevada.