Elon Musk co-founded SolarCity with his cousins Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive in 2006.
SolarCity became one of the largest residential solar-energy companies in the United States. It installed and financed solar panels for homes and businesses, helping customers generate electricity on site rather than relying entirely on utility power.
Musk served as SolarCity’s chairman, while Lyndon Rive was its chief executive. Tesla agreed to acquire SolarCity in 2016, and the transaction was completed later that year. Tesla subsequently integrated SolarCity’s energy products into its broader clean-energy strategy.
SolarCity is sometimes confused with Tesla Energy, which is the later Tesla business involving solar generation and battery storage. SolarCity was the independent company that preceded that integration.