US solar manufacturer T1 Energy and US tracker manufacturer Nextracker have signed an agreement to use the latter’s steel module frames at the former’s new 5GW module manufacturing facility in Dallas.
T1 Energy acquired the G1_Dallas facility in December 2024 from Chinese firm Trinasolar, completing its rebrand from Freyr Battery and its transition from the battery to the solar manufacturing space. The company produced 1.2GW of modules in the first eight months of 2025, and plans to ramp up production capacity to 5GW next year, and has made sourcing US-made components for its products a priority.
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This includes cells, through its G2 Austin solar cell manufacturing facility, and components such as module frames through the Nextracker deal.
“These are American companies and factories with American workers delivering American energy security,” said T1 CEO and chairman Daniel Barcelo. “With potential for surging demand from data centres and AI infrastructure, the US needs to establish critical energy supply chains built on domestic capacity and industrial expertise. This is exactly what T1 and Nextracker are doing, together.”
Securing domestic supply chains of key solar components has been a priority for many US solar companies in the wake of the government’s tightening of restrictions on imports from overseas.
This has taken the form of greater tariffs placed on products coming from overseas, a crackdown on Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) legislation that has made it harder to secure products from China, in particular, and a looming antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) decision on a number of Asian countries that could disrupt supply chains connecting India, Indonesia and Laos to the US.
In response, companies have either sought to expand their own US operations through acquisitions, or supply deals with other US manufacturers. Earlier this month, T1 Energy bought a minority stake in cell producer Talon PV, with both companies involved in the tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cell space. Meanwhile, in September, Nextracker acquired steel frame manufacturer Origami Solar, and signed a 2GW supply deal with renewables company the Clearway Energy Group in 2023.
Nextracker also said this week that it would “increase its existing US steel frame capacity in the Midwest”. Although it did not specify how much manufacturing capacity it expects to add, or how this plan relates to the Origami Solar acquisition, the priority to relocate supply chains to the US is clear.
“Solar panels were invented by Bell Labs in the 1950s, and it is fantastic to see reshoring of PV manufacturing facilities at real scale in the USA,” said Dan Shugar, Nextracker founder and CEO.
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will host the 12th edition of the Solar & Storage Finance USA event on 21-22 October 2025 in New York. Panellists will discuss the fate of US solar and storage in a post-subsidy world, the evolving economics of standalone BESS and de-risking solar and storage supply chains.
All are encouraged to respond to an anonymous survey on the US solar and storage sector, that will shape discussions at the summit. Tickets for the event are available on the official website.
