In exchange, SolarCity has pledged to create at least 1,450 direct manufacturing jobs at the facility, while employing another 2,000 people in the state as part of its normal downstream PV installation business.
California-based SolarCity is expected to plough $5bn into the factory's "creation and operation" over the next decade, including salaries.
New York's enormous public investment in SolarCity comes as the Empire State looks to remake itself into a clean-tech hub of global significance, while revivifying economically depressed regions -- including post-industrial Buffalo, located south of Niagara Falls along Lake Erie.
