Enel North America has announced plans to build a 3GW solar cell and module manufacturing plant in the US, with site selection already underway.
According to Enel, construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 with commercial operations beginning by the end of 2024. The facility will have the ability to scale up to 6GW of annual production capacity, the company said.
Enrico Viale, head of Enel North America, said incentives for domestic solar manufacturing in the Inflation Reduction Act “served as a catalyst” for the company’s decision.
Currently, Enel North America’s parent company, the multinational utility and energy developer Enel, has only a small solar manufacturing footprint globally. 3Sun operates a 200MW solar manufacturing facility in Italy with plans to expand production capacity to 3GW.
Enel plans to replicate the Italy production facility to produce bifacial heterojunction PV cells in the US, the company said.
Have you read?
EDP Brazil shrinks hydropower portfolio in favour of solar
Cincinnati Zoo makes net zero gains with 28MW solar project
Solar cell manufacturing comes to the US
The announcement is the latest in a string of victories for domestic solar manufacturing since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. But it’s unique in that Enel plans to bring cell manufacturing to the U.S., nearly all of which occurs in China.
A recent report from the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance found that Chinese producers hold 83% of global capacity for polysilicon production, 96% for wafers, 79% for cells, and 70% for modules.
“It is our intention to bolster a robust domestic solar supply chain that accelerates and strengthens the US’s transition to clean energy,” Viale said.
The snowball effect
Enel’s news comes less than a day after U.S. solar module manufacturer First Solar announced that it will build its $1.1 billion, 3.5GWdc factory in Alabama.
The new factory is part of a previously announced investment in scaling First Solar’s American manufacturing footprint to more than 10GWdc by 2025.
The planned factory in Lawrence County, west of Huntsville in the northern part of the state, is expected to be commissioned by 2025. It would join three factories in Ohio, including one that is scheduled to come online in the first half of 2023.
Qcells parent company Hanwha continues to search for locations for a new solar module manufacturing plant of its own. The company has promised a “multi-billion dollar” investment in the U.S. solar supply chain in response to the Inflation Reduction Act.
Ohio-based Toledo Solar plans to expand its domestic panel manufacturing capacity to reach 2.8 GW by 2027. The company manufactures Cadmium Telluride CdTe (“cad tell”) thin film solar panels and systems, with a supply chain sourced from North America.
Originally published by John Engel on renewableenergyworld.com
