Vietnamese solar manufacturer Boviet Solar has started construction on its 2GW TOPCon module assembly plant in North Carolina, US, with the solar cell plant to follow suit.
Carried out in two phases, the first one will see the renovation of an existing 500,000 square-foot facility, in Pitt County, for the module assembly of the company’s monofacial Gamma Series and bifacial Vega Series modules for all segments – residential, commercial & industrial and utility-scale.
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Mass production of the modules is targeted to begin by early first half of 2025. Construction of the module assembly plant started less than six months after the company unveiled North Carolina as the location in April 2024. Boviet Solar will invest US$294 million to build the 2GW module and solar cell plant.
The second phase, which involves the construction of a 55,000sqm facility dedicated to the production of 2GW of annual nameplate capacity for solar cells, is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024. Boviet Solar has not disclosed a timeframe for when it expects to begin commercial production of cells.
Including the construction of domestic solar cell capacity with modules will be of importance in the US in the coming months. This is due to the ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation into imports of crystalline silicon solar cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from four Southeast Asian countries.
The US Department of Commerce recently released a preliminary determination to apply countervailing duties to solar cells imports from Southeast Asia – in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Vietnam – to 17 companies across the four countries as well as a subsidy rates for “All others” in each country. Prior to this preliminary determination, US renewables firm Clean Energy Associates predicted in April 2024 that the ongoing AD/CVD investigation and the application of duties could cause a supply bottleneck of solar cells.
Sienna Cen, president of Boviet Solar USA, said: “The completed facilities will produce 2GW of solar modules and 2GW of solar cells annually, significantly contributing to the US solar supply chain and supporting the nation’s transition to clean energy. This project not only underscores North Carolina’s role as a leader in renewable energy but also creates significant economic opportunities for the local community.”
