According to Reuters, Tesla (TSLA.US) is ramping up hiring efforts to support founder Elon Musk’s recently announced plan for a 100-gigawatt domestic solar production target, as indicated by posts from company executives on LinkedIn.
Seth Winger, Tesla’s senior manager of solar product engineering, wrote in a post: “This is a bold, ambitious program. We need bold, ambitious engineers and scientists to help us scale. If you want to solve tough manufacturing problems at a rapid pace and help America make a breakthrough in renewable energy generation, join us.”
A job posting on Tesla’s website states that the company aims to “deploy 100 gigawatts of solar manufacturing domestically from raw materials by the end of 2028.” Previously, Musk had not provided a timeline for this goal or announced hiring plans to achieve it.
Tesla officials and Musk have not yet responded to requests for comment. Tesla’s engineering director, Ralf Gomm, and vice president of battery cell manufacturing, Bonne Eggleston, also posted about the company’s hiring plans in the solar sector this week.
These recruitment efforts are the latest sign of Tesla’s shift toward solar manufacturing amid a slowdown in electric vehicle sales. Last week, Tesla launched a new solar panel at its factory in Buffalo, New York. Meanwhile, local Chinese media reported earlier this week that a delegation sent by Musk visited several Chinese solar companies.
Musk himself has stated that the surge in power demand from data centers due to AI expansion makes solar and batteries the best way to add significant electricity to the grid. These views conflict with those of the Trump administration, which has publicly criticized renewable energy as costly and inefficient and signed legislation to cut clean energy subsidies.
