> They're not a breakthrough solar company, there's very little technically that they actually do that's better than anyone else It's worth saying that this co

> They're not a breakthrough solar company, there's very little technically that they actually do that's better than anyone else It's worth saying that this concept of a breakthrough discovery in solar has been pursued and hyped for years, including god knows how many articles in mainstream newspapers and magazines, and yet almost all of the progress which has happened, has been through the economics of increased scale, or with progressive optimizations made by anonymous industrial engineers in China (albeit with the groundwork laid by worldwide materials research). Also, as far as I'm aware this is the first time SolarCity has been directly involved in manufacturing panels. As you say, they are more about business than technology, but it is interesting to have an installation company going back into the manufacturing process and putting its priorities at the centre. The focus on maximizing efficiency rather than cost per watt makes a lot more sense to an installer than a pure manufacturer - in terms of the large fixed labour costs of putting up scaffolding, fitting a certain number of panels, wiring etc.