Canadian solar panel maker Heliene and India’s solar cell maker Premier Energies are joining forces to build a US solar cell factory.
This is great news for the US, as there is currently a shortage of US solar cell manufacturing capacity.
Chiranjeev Saluja, managing director at Premier Energies, said, “This joint venture will leverage the best of both companies’ resources and knowledge to tap the largely unaddressed demand for US cell manufacturing.”
Heliene says the decision to invest jointly in the US solar industry is in direct response to the incentives and tax credits introduced by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The new factory will produce an annual aggregate capacity of 1 GW N-Type cells to supply both Heliene’s and Premier’s US solar cell needs.
Cells produced at the new site and incorporated into existing US solar panel manufacturing operations will also benefit solar developers who want to tap into the US Treasury Department’s 10% Domestic Content Bonus Investment Tax Credit on top of the 30% IRA tax credit for renewable energy factories.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Heliene will be responsible for construction, project management, human resources, financial resource and management, facility operations, supply chain and logistics, and regulatory expertise. Premier will contribute cell technology engineering and operational expertise in the cell manufacturing process, manufacturing equipment selection, financial resources, raw material vendor relationships, and supply agreements management.
Heliene already works with Premier Energies; it currently sources solar cells from its Hyderabad factory for use in solar panel manufacturing at its Mountain Iron, Minnesota, factory. Premier Energies is India’s second-largest integrated cell and module manufacturer, with a module capacity of 3.36 GW and cell capacity of 2 GW.
Heliene and Premier Energies expect to begin production at their new factory, which will be sited near Minneapolis, in Q2 2026. The companies will release further details on the US project’s scope and timeline “shortly.”
Read more: The first entirely US-made crystalline solar panels are coming to market
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