Minnesota-based photo voltaic panel producer Heliene introduced in the present day it’s going to buy silicon photo voltaic cells from Suniva below a $400 million, three-year contract. Suniva is anticipated to restart photo voltaic cell manufacturing at its Georgia manufacturing facility throughout the subsequent few months.
Heliene’s photo voltaic panel manufacturing facility in Minnesota. Credit score: Photo voltaic Energy World
“Heliene is proud to embark on this historic partnership with Suniva at a time when the U.S. is poised to seize a better share of the worldwide photo voltaic market by bolstering home manufacturing and onshoring of provide,” mentioned Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene. “Introducing Suniva’s U.S.-made cells into our manufacturing course of will allow Heliene to develop its dedication to providing best-in-class modules that allow our prospects to qualify for profitable tax credit and incentives.”
Suniva introduced final 12 months it could restart its cell manufacturing operations in Norcross, Georgia, after the Biden Administration included manufacturing tax credit within the Inflation Discount Act. Suniva expects the manufacturing facility to have 1 GW of annual manufacturing capability.
Canada-headquartered Heliene presently operates an 800-MW photo voltaic panel meeting campus in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. The corporate has additionally acknowledged plans for a second panel meeting facility within the Twin Cities space.
The 2 firms have obtained investments from Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC) since incentives within the IRA have inspired extra home photo voltaic manufacturing. The home content material bonus credit score throughout the IRA offers an extra bonus credit score to photo voltaic vitality installers that use American-made merchandise. To ensure that photo voltaic panels to qualify as “American-made,” the Treasury Dept. mentioned the panels should use cells made in the US.
As of in the present day, solely First Photo voltaic cadmium-telluride thin-film photo voltaic panels made in Ohio, which use a novel vapor deposition course of that technically qualifies as cell manufacturing, totally qualify for the home content material bonus as-written. The Suniva photo voltaic cell manufacturing facility will probably be the primary silicon cell manufacturing operations to start out in the US this 12 months, making Heliene photo voltaic panels the primary silicon photo voltaic panels to achieve the home content material bonus requirements.
“We’re thrilled to accomplice with Heliene, who shares our imaginative and prescient for rising the US’ photo voltaic PV provide chain,” mentioned Cristiano Amoruso, CEO of Suniva. “This contract is a testomony to the effectiveness of the Inflation Discount Act and Treasury’s Might 2023 home content material steering. We’re proud to meet our long-standing promise to deliver again cell manufacturing to the US at our Norcross facility.”
