Indian solar manufacturer Premier Energies has put under review its plan to build a solar cell plant in the US.
This was unveiled during an investor’s call held yesterday (February 3) with the company stating that it has kept its cell line investment in the US “under review” and is awaiting clarity regarding the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) before “we spend any money on the cell line”.
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This comes less than a year after the company formed a joint venture with Canadian solar manufacturer Heliene to build an n-type solar cell plant with an annual nameplate capacity of 1GW in the US.
In his first day in office, US president Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders outlining his administration’s plans for the next four years. The US president announced challenges to the IRA and signed an executive order that would revoke parts of the IRA; however, what will be revoked still remains unclear.
“As a company we have taken a conscious decision not to move ahead until we get full clarity on this topic,” said Premier Energies during the investor call.
Despite pausing its plans in the US for the time being, the company does not expect to increase its exports outside of India with a limit of 3%. According to the company’s statement during the investor’s call it aims to focus towards the Indian market for the time being.
Regarding the decision of Premier Energies to review its plans to build solar cell capacity in the US, Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene, said: “Heliene has not suspended its joint venture with Premier Energies or its plans to manufacture solar cells in the US. Our team continues to work in the preparation and budgeting of the project and will move ahead as soon as the new administration sets its priorities and it is clear the 45X ITC will stay in place.
“In parallel to these efforts, our investment in module manufacturing in the greater Minneapolis area is going ahead as planned, with a start-up of Line 3 for late April or early May 2025.”
Solar manufacturing expansion
During the investor call, the company also shared details regarding the timeline of its manufacturing expansion plans with a 1GW TOPCon solar cell and module line to be completed by Q1FY26 and 4GW TOPCon solar cell and module line to be completed by Q1FY27. By June 2026, this would bring the company’s annual nameplate capacity to 7GW and 9.1GW for solar cells and modules, respectively.
Further upstream Premier Energies aims to commission 2GW of annual nameplate capacity for wafers, while its aluminium frame business aims to reach 36,000 metric tons of annual nameplate capacity.
Regarding the Indian market, the company expects the rooftop market to reach annual installations of between 9-10GW in the next couple of years. Residential solar would make the bulk of the share with 6GW to 7GW, while it forecasts the commercial and industrial to add 2.5GW to 3GW.
Updated on 04 February 2025 to add comments from Heliene regarding Premier Energies announcement.
