[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="602"] HarborCenter is almost completed and looks inviting even in a rain shower like tonight. The 38-foot television at (716) at HarborCenter. The Canisius College hockey team practices on the Feature Rink at HarborCenter cultine here thanks for the twolines here for this story need of the words. Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News[/caption]

It is the biggest of the Buffalo Billion projects: a 1 million-square-foot solar panel factory being built on the former Republic Steel site in South Buffalo known as RiverBend. Backed by a $750 million investment from New York State, construction began in late September. Crews are drilling more than 5,500 pilings that will support the plant’s foundation. As the pilings are put in place, workers will begin pouring concrete for the plant’s foundation and then its sprawling slab. Crews are expected to pour concrete through July. Meanwhile, the building’s structural steel will start going up in February, with the hope of enclosing the plant this summer. The goal is to have the building finished by the end of the year.

SolarCity, the nation’s biggest residential solar energy systems installer, will then start moving equipment into the plant, with another three months to test the equipment. It will take another three to six months to ramp up to full production. SolarCity executives said they expect to be producing solar modules in 2016 and ramp up to full capacity in 2017.

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By David Robinson | News Business Reporter on January 25, 2015 - 12:01 AM