Solar manufacturer T1 Energy has selected Milam County in Austin, Texas for the construction of a 5GW solar cell plant.
Formerly known as Freyr Battery, the company executed a lease and purchase option for 100 acres to build its solar cell plant – known as G2 Austin – which will have an investment of up to US$850 million. As part of its rebranding unveiled last month, the company also moved headquarters from Georgia to Austin, where the solar cell plant will be located.
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Construction of the solar cell plant is expected to begin in mid-year 2025 with commercial production beginning in the second half of 2026.
The site will be close to the company’s 5GW module assembly plant, which was acquired last year from Chinese solar manufacturer TrinaSolar. The ramp up of this plant is running ahead of schedule, according to the company.
During the first two months of 2025, the module assembly plant has produced more than 220MW of products, exceeding production plans by 48%. Four utility-scale production lines have been installed and commissioned with a production mix of both PERC and TOPCon modules.
T1 Energy expects the module assembly plant – known as G1 Dallas – to achieve its production target of 3.4GW in 2025.
“The fourth quarter and subsequent start of 2025 have been punctuated by our strategic repositioning as T1 Energy,” said Daniel Barcelo, T1’s Chairman of the Board and CEO. “Having completed a transformative acquisition on an accelerated timeline, we are now focusing on the next phases of our plan to become an American, vertically integrated solar and battery storage leader.”
Texas, leading state for solar
Texas has positioned itself as a major hub for solar manufacturers with many companies building module capacity in the state. In 2024, Texas added more than 11.6GW of solar PV, more than the next two states combined, which were California and Florida.
Aside from T1 Energy, other PV manufacturers with solar manufacturing plans in Texas are Canadian Solar – which will have 5GW of annual nameplate capacity by the end of 2024 – SEG Solar – with 2GW annual nameplate capacity – and, more recently, Toyo, which acquired a 2.5GW module assembly plant in Houston and aims to begin production in mid-2025.
Solar steel frame producer Origami Solar partnered in December 2024 with industrial manufacturing services company Unimacts to establish a frame roll-forming manufacturing line in Houston, Texas.
More recently, Japanese industrial electric and automation technology company Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corporation (TMEIC) began operations at its inverter manufacturing plant in Texas. The facility is still ramping up its capacity, however when the project was announced, the company announced that it aimed to have a 9GW annual nameplate capacity for solar PV inverters.
