From pv magazine USA
ES Foundry, a US-owned solar cell producer, has secured its first gigawatt-plus, multi-year contract with a top-tier solar module manufacturer.
The cell manufacturer started production this month at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in South Carolina and the customer will receive its first shipment in February, Alex Zhu, the founder and CEO of ES Foundry, told pv magazine USA.
ES Foundry said the partnership is with a top-tier module manufacturer that is “renowned for its innovation and market leadership.”
“Our first customer is proof of the demand for high-efficiency, American-made solar cells that deliver both top-tier performance and unmatched value,” said Ken Johnston, VP of sales for ES Foundry. “With our premium-quality, domestically manufactured solar cells, customers can unlock the domestic content ITC, simplify compliance with IRS Safe Harbor guidance and secure a reliable supply chain solution.”
ES Foundry is currently making crystalline bifacial passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells that it says qualify for the domestic content bonus. The initial annual capacity is 1 GW, ramping up to 3 GW by the third quarter of 2025. Zhu said the company plans for tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) and heterojunction (HJT) in future expansion.
Zhu said there are currently 100 people employed at the plant, with plans to scale up to 500 by the end of the year. He said the company’s investors include international private-equity firms with no Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) investment.
The pursuit of onshoring the US solar manufacturing supply chain has come with the challenge of imbalanced capacities of domestically made modules, cells, wafers and ingots. But according to the “US Solar Market Insight Q4 2024” report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, the tide may be turning.
Since passage of the US Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, domestic solar module manufacturing has nearly quintupled, according to the SEIA. In 2022, the United States was producing less than 7 GW, which has grown to over 40 GW today. At current full capacity, the nation can produce enough solar modules to meet nearly all US demand, the report said. Demand is expected to be 40.5 GW (DC) in 2024, followed by average annual volumes of at least 43 GW (DC) from 2025 to 2029.
Cell manufacturing, however, has been slower to take hold due to the complex and costly process. According to the report, the first US cell manufacturing facility opened in the third quarter of 2024, the first since 2019. While several manufacturers have announced plans to produce cells, current production is negligible, as shown in the SEIA chart below.
“Onshoring cell production is crucial for establishing a resilient solar supply chain,” said Elissa Pierce, a solar supply chain analyst for Wood Mackenzie. “The US now has over 40 GW of module manufacturing capacity, but the vast majority of these modules are made with cells imported from Southeast Asia and other regions. A stable supply of US-made cells can mitigate the impact of tariff increases and other potential supply chain disruptions on the market.”
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