Tesla Motors and Panasonic announced on Tuesday their partnership to manufacture the first photovoltaic (PV) cells and other solar modules next year at Tesla's factory in Buffalo, New York.

Production of the first PV cells is expected to begin in summer 2017, and the capacity of the Buffalo factory will be enlarged to 1 gigawatt of solar module production by 2019.

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Buffalo factory was originally built by Silevo, a company acquired by SolarCity in 2014. Last month, it was bought by Tesla for $2.6 billion. 

Panasonic will invest more than $256 million on the installation of production equipment, according to Bloomberg. In return, Tesla will make long-term purchase commitments to Panasonic.

The announcement underscored deepening and strengthening of ties between the two companies. The plan is part of the solar partnership they first announced in October.

Both Panasonic and Tesla are jointly building a $5 billion lithium-ion gigafactory in Nevada to manufacture batteries for electric cars and energy storage products for homes and utilities.  

At present, the "high-efficiency PV cells and modules will be used to produce solar panels in the non-solar roof products but when production of the solar roof begins, Tesla will also incorporate Panasonic's cells into the various type of Tesla's solar glass tile roofs," a statement was posted on both firms' websites.

"All of these solar products will work seamlessly with Tesla's energy storage products, Powerwall and Powerpack," Tesla said in statement.

Panasonic is also the exclusive supplier of batteries to Tesla's Model S and Model X vehicles for the upcoming Model 3, the company's first mass-market car.

TagsTesla, Panasonic, New York, Solar Modules, First Photovoltaic Cells