A domestic U.S. solar supply chain is slowly, but surely, taking shape.
ES Foundry, an American company onshoring crystalline solar cell production, recently celebrated the grand opening of its “cutting-edge” manufacturing facility.
With the ribbon cutting at its more than 400,000-square-foot facility, which is on track to employ approximately 500 employees by June 2025, ES Foundry could become the largest producer of high-quality crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) solar cells in the United States. The facility is expected to reach a shipment capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) by Q3 2025.
Earlier this month, ES Foundry announced its first GW+, multi-year contract with a “top-tier solar module manufacturer.” The company’s crystalline bifacial PERC (Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact) solar cells are intended to meet the “escalating demand” for domestically manufactured solar modules.
Currently, Suniva is the only company producing solar cells in the United States. Suniva, which lays claim to the title of “oldest U.S. manufacturer of high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon solar cells,” recently restarted production at its Norcross, Georgia facility and has sent out the first shipments of its made-in-the-USA product to North American manufacturer Heliene.
“Today, we are not just celebrating a factory—we are forging a path to a more sustainable, energy-secure future for America,” said Alex Zhu, CEO of ES Foundry. “Our advanced solar cells are engineered and manufactured right here in the United States, ensuring reliability, efficiency and the opportunity to maximize financial incentives for our partners.”
made in the u.s.a.?
Suniva, currently the only producer of made-in-the-U.S.A. solar cells, had been inoperative since 2017 when the company filed for bankruptcy, but bolstered by Inflation Reduction Act incentives, announced plans to give it another go in the fall of 2023. The cells manufactured at the Norcross facility are the first to qualify for the 10% Domestic Content Bonus Investment Tax Credit under the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s guidance published in May 2023. The company wants to ramp up production to produce about 1 GW of cells per year.
However, Heliene recently announced it is pressing pause on its plans to build out a solar cell manufacturing facility in Minnesota, opting instead to wait for more clarity from the Trump Administration on the tax credits that made the project viable.
Heliene CEO Martin Pochtaruk has confirmed to Renewable Energy World that his company will hold off on leasing the building for its previously announced solar cell plant in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, a joint venture (JV) with India’s Premier Energies. Heliene will also wait to order the necessary equipment for the facility until after Trump decides what lives and dies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the landmark infrastructure legislation championed by former President Biden that has pumped billions of dollars into the American economy. Despite bipartisan support, it’s likely some provisions of the IRA will be stripped away, although many experts suspect its core framework will remain intact.
The Minnesota solar cell manufacturing facility was planned to be the second one operational in the United States, following Suniva’s freshly-minted line in Georgia. Last year, Heliene announced a three-year sourcing contract to produce the first “made in the USA” PV module eligible for the IRA’s domestic tax credits. The first modules were shipped in late 2024, a landmark moment for stateside solar manufacturing.
Qcells’ end-to-end solar manufacturing site in Georgia will be the next major boost to domestic cell capacity to come online. However, it’s unclear how the company will handle losing contracted polysilicon manufacturer REC Silicon, which announced it will cease production after failing another purity test.
Making solar cells in the United States has long been a boutique option at best due to drastically cheaper availability via overseas imports, particularly from Southeast Asia. China dominates the global manufacturing of polysilicon and wafers, accounting for 93% of polysilicon capacity and 95% of wafer capacity. However, tariffs, ongoing anti-dumping/countervailing duties investigations, and IRA incentives have begun to sow the seeds of domestic production returning. According to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie, there is about 10 GW of cell capacity under construction, including QCells’ Cartersville, Georgia fully integrated facility, set to be the largest solar ingot and wafer plant ever built in the U.S.
Even still, according to a recent BloombergNEF analysis, the global price for solar panels is about $0.11 per watt- impossible to compete with domestically (at least right now). Some Chinese models are selling for under $.03/W, while the most competitive U.S. offerings are lucky to be on the underside of $.30/W. Energy price reporting agency OPIS assessed the U.S. mono PERC Q4 delivery module prices at $0.249/W, with indications between $0.215/W to $0.310/W. A readily available domestic content-eligible cell may very well bring those prices down further, but some industry leaders don’t expect that to be a reality until late 2026 or early 2027.
