Canadian Solar opens US Solar Cell Factory in Indiana

Canadian Solar has opened a new solar cell manufacturing facility in Indiana. The company claims that this will fill a major gap in U.S. Solar Manufacturing by producing an important component?that's largely produced in Asia.

The U.S. wants to??build? a domestic supply chain for solar energy through tax incentives and other trade measures that aim to reduce dependence on imports. China controls around 80% of global solar supply chains.

The U.S. manufacturing division of Canadian Solar, CS PowerTech is investing nearly $1 billion in the U.S. and will employ over 1,200 workers once production reaches 'full capacity' by early next.

In an interview, Colin Parkin, CEO of Canadian Solar said: "This is a huge milestone for us."

Canadian Solar is a solar equipment manufacturer based in Ontario in Canada. It has factories in China, Southeast Asia, and the United States.

The Jeffersonville, Indiana facility is the nation's first plant to produce heterojunction solar cells. Parkin says that this technology offers a higher efficiency than traditional technologies, and there are still many improvements possible.

Since the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which created a tax incentive for advanced clean energy manufacturing, the United States has increased its solar module assembly capacity. The production of panels that combine cells has been slow, making manufacturers dependent on imports.

The output from the Jeffersonville facility will be used by Canadian Solar’s?module plant in Mesquite (Texas), which is expanding to 10 GW annual capacity.

Parkin stated that the company will still be dependent on certain imports, but "it will reduce our dependence on imported cells".

U.S. tariffs against solar imports, and incentives for manufacturing helped justify investment. Parkin added that the company could take full advantage of tax incentives by producing both modules and cells domestically.

He said that Canadian Solar was also evaluating further investments upstream in solar supply chain. (Reporting and editing by Nia William; Nichola Groom)

(source: Reuters)