ELON: WE CARE ABOUT AESTHETICS—EVEN FOR OUR FACTORIES “It's a factory, but we care about aesthetics.  Does it look good?  Does it work with the rest of the environment?  The [Nevada] factory will actually be shaped like a diamond.  The reason for that is if you make it a box shape, we would have had to move a lot more earth.  So, in order to have it fit more in the environment, we've had it shaped like a diamond.  It's also aligned on true north so that we can actually map out where the equipment's going to be by GPS.  The solar panels that will be on the roof are also properly aligned.  It sounds romantic to say it's shaped like a diamond and aligned on true north, but there are practical reasons for it as well. This factory will produce its own energy as well, through a combination of geothermal, wind and solar.  So, it'll be a sort of self-contained factory.” Source: Giga Nevada Announcement, September 4, 2014