Amid potential supply chain bottlenecks as China increases its PV manufacturing dominance, companies in markets such as the US, India and Europe are looking to leverage new policy support to scale up domestic production. Jules Scully charts the industry’s efforts to onshore solar module manufacturing.
The largest solar investment in US history, a pivot to a vertically integrated PV manufacturing facility in the state of Georgia by Qcells, was enabled by a combination of state support, federal government investment and related benefits coming from the Inflation Reduction (IRA), according to the company.
CubicPV, a US solar manufacturer backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is looking to leverage support included in the country’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to set up what it claims will be the largest PV wafer manufacturing facility outside of China.
CSI Solar has announced plans to expand its solar and battery storage manufacturing capacity in China, through an investment agreement with the municipal government of Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province.
Solar PV manufacturer Qcells has signed a deal with Microsoft to supply at least 2.5GW of its modules to projects from which the tech giant will purchase renewable energy.
SolarEdge has become the first vendor to meet the South Australian government's new dynamic export regulations, which aim to stabilise the grid with sophisticated yet remote cloud control technologies.
Power infrastructure developer Advanced Power's Cutlass Solar project has commenced full commercial operations to offer renewable power to the Greater Houston area after completing several months of testing.
Chinese module manufacturer JA Solar has announced its plan to invest RMB40 billion (US$5.9 billion) to construct a vertically integrated PV industry hub in Inner Mongolia.
