Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Solar components manufacturer Silfab Solar yesterday announced a $125 million investment to build a third U.S. solar factory.
Why it matters: The U.S. is rushing to expand its domestic renewables supply chain. Silfab's planned factory would roughly double its American manufacturing capacity.
Details: The $125 million comes from Calgary, Alberta-based private equity firm ARC Energy.
- Co-investors include Manulife Financial Corporation, the Ontario Power Generation Pension Plan, CF Private Equity and BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice.
Zoom in: Silfab expects to open the plant somewhere on the East Coast in 2024.
- The plant will have initial annual cell production capacity of 1 GW and solar module assembly capacity of 1.2 GW.
State of play: The new site will bring Silfab's U.S. solar panel assembly capacity to about 2 GW, per Solar Power World.
- The company is one of just a small handful that have fulfilled U.S. factory announcements in recent years.
Context: U.S. solar module production capacity amounted to about 11 GW last year.
- The top U.S. module manufacturers by capacity are FirstSolar, Hanwha Qcells, and SPI Energy, Wood Mackenzie tells Axios.
- Global capacity is about 500 GW, with a supply chain largely dominated by China.
Of note: The U.S. has no cell manufacturing capacity — meaning Silfab's factory would be one of the first.
