The Buffalo News: Opinion: Buffalo’s transformation take new
shape with
the explosive growth of the RiverBend project
Published:
Friday, September 26, 2014 - 10:23
The Buffalo News
Buffalo’s transformation took on new meaning Tuesday when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that SolarCity’s planned factory in South Buffalo will bring not the 475 jobs first projected by the RiverBend project or even the 850 jobs later forecast, but 3,000 jobs – more even than the employment that parcel supported when it was occupied by Republic Steel.
Huge. Enormous. Historic. Unprecedented. There are hardly enough adjectives to describe what is going on here.
SolarCity’s plan to develop solar panels to generate more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity would make it the largest solar panel factory in the Western Hemisphere and one of the largest in the world. It would be three times larger than any other solar panel factory in the United States.
To be clear: That is happening here, in Buffalo. South Buffalo, to be specific, on the former Republic Steel site where SolarCity plans to build a 1.2-million-square-foot plant. That’s approaching the size of Walden Galleria. Official ground-breaking took place on Tuesday, though preliminary work has been under way.
