Canadian solar manufacturer Heliene has opened a 500MW module assembly plant in the US state of Minnesota.
Located in Rogers, it is the company’s third operational manufacturing line and its third in Minnesota. The other two lines are part of Heliene’s module manufacturing plant in Mountain Iron, with 300MW—which was increased back in 2023 to produce TOPCon modules—and 500MW annual nameplate capacity, respectively, bringing the company’s total annual nameplate capacity in the US to 1.3GW.
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Across all the US manufacturing lines, Heliene produces bifacial, high-efficiency crystalline PV modules, using the highest possible percentage of domestic content. In order to achieve this, Heliene secured several partnerships, including one with Suniva and Corning earlier this year. All three manufacturers have partnered to build modules with a domestic production of polysilicon, wafers, and cells and modules made in the US.
Other moves to secure domestic content include supply agreements with PV steel frame producer Origami Solar and PV recycling firm Solarcycle. Since April 2025, buyers of Heliene’s 144 and 156 half-cut bifacial modules are able to use Origami’s US-made steel frames on top of the existing aluminium frame options; while Solarcycle will provide Heliene with 4GW of recycled solar glass over the next five years.
Moreover, the solar manufacturer has secured US$2.3 million in funding from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), with specific funding from the Minnesota Investment Fund (MIF), Minnesota Job Creation Fund (JCF) and the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) to support the creation of more than 220 jobs at the Rogers module assembly plant.
Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene, said: “By nearly doubling our manufacturing capacity at our new Rogers, Minnesota facility, we can continue to provide best-in-class fully domestic content products and service to our customers, while we deliver on our broader goal of onshoring U.S. solar supply chains, by incorporating domestically-produced, cells, frames, polymers and other critical components.”
The new module manufacturing line in Minnesota comes nearly two years after the company unveiled plans to build nearly 1GW of module assembly and 1.5GW of solar cell production capacity in the US. To support its plans to develop solar cell and module capacity in the US, the company secured north of US$50 million in tax credit transfer sales, last September.
Heliene will be among the solar manufacturers present at this year’s fourth edition of PV ModuleTech US in Napa, California, during 17-18 June 2025. The conference will address the module landscape and map out the PV module supply channels to the US in the coming years. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.
