Swiss engineering firm Stäubli has announced “major new investments” to expand its cable connector production and product assembly capacity for solar manufacturers in the US.
The company plans to expand its South Carolina and California plants, which have a workforce of over 180 people, and manufacture components used in the solar sector, such as the MC4 PV connector. According to Stäubli, its products have been used in the deployment of more than 800GW of capacity around the world, and its leadership is keen to expand its operations as the US looks to encourage domestic renewable manufacturing under the terms of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
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“We plan to steadily increase our made-in-America products at these manufacturing facilities,” announced Brian Mills, Stäubli head of renewable energy, North America.
“Increasing our already established solar connector manufacturing footprint in the US puts Stäubli in a strong position to support the increasing demand for domestically made components driven in part by the IRA of 2022.”
When asked about the company’s plans, a Stäubli spokesperson told PV Tech that it could not yet provide a specific number of new jobs, or put a figure on the value of the company’s investment into the expanded facilities. However, Mills noted that the company has plans for a “multi-million-dollar expansion” to grow North American manufacturing capacity.
“We are making cable connectors, cable assemblies, and bespoke [and] custom products for large Tier 1 manufacturers,” Mills told PV Tech. “As far as the magnitude of investments, Stäubli has a multi-million-dollar expansion plan to grow North American produced standard and custom products that we have been implementing over the last several years that will be continuing and expanding through this decade.”
The news is the latest in the growing US solar manufacturing sector, following the announcement of Vietnamese manufacturer Boviet Solar of plans to build a combined 4GW of combined cell and module production capacity in North Carolina.