 The company, in partnership with Panasonic, operates Tesla Giga New York, a factory in Buffalo, New York, where it manufactures solar module components.SolarCity was founded in 2006 by brothers Peter and Lyndon Rive, based on a suggestion for a solar company concept by their cousin, Elon Musk, who was the chairman and helped start the company.By 2009, solar panels it had installed were capable of generating 440 megawatts (MW) of power.