Toyo Solar to build 2GW US module manufacturing plant, announces strong financial results

September 4, 2024
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
A Toyo Solar manufacturing facility.
Toyo Solar plans to invest US$100 million into the new US facility. Image: Toyo Solar.

Japanese cell and module manufacturer Toyo Solar has announced plans to build a 2GW module manufacturing plant in the US, which it plans to commission next year.

The company, a subsidiary of fellow Japanese manufacturer Vsun Solar, will produce tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules at the new facility, and announced the plan in its half-year results. It noted that, in the first half of 2024, it had provided 985MW of cells to predominantly US projects, and it will build upon this relationship with its new manufacturing facility.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Toyo Solar plans to invest US$100 million into the new facility, and expects to recoup the majority of this investment within 12 months of the project’s commissioning, due to supportive legislation currently in place in the US.

With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offering tax credits for companies contributing to manufacturing in the clean energy sector, Toyo solar expects to receive tax credits equal to US$12/m2 of wafers produced, alongside US$0.04/watt of cells and US$0.07/watt of modules. The company expects to produce 1.4GW of modules in the factory’s first year of production—before scaling up to 2GW of annual production capacity—and this output to generate around US$84 million in tax credits.

Looking ahead, Toyo Solar also expects to begin production of cells in the US in the first half of 2026, and has announced plans to build a wafer slicing facility in the country, but has not yet put a date on this project.

The announcement follows significant investment into the US solar manufacturing sector. Earlier this year, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced US$71 million in financing for silicon and thin-film manufacturing initiatives in the country, and leading Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger drew headlines over the summer for closing down a plant in Germany, to open a new manufacturing facility in Arizona. At Intersolar 2024, CEO Gunter Erfurt told PV Tech Premium that “history has proven us right” with regards to this shift from Europe to the US.

However, last week Meyer Burger announced that it would scrap a proposed cell manufacturing plant in Colorado as the facility had become “no longer financially viable.” While this decision was motivated as much by Meyer Burger’s own financial struggles as the perceived unviability of solar manufacturing in the US, the loss of such significant private investment into the US manufacturing sector, prior to Toyo Solar’s investment, was a significant blow.

Toyo Solar posts strong financial results

The news follows an impressive first half for Toyo Solar, which saw its net income jump from a loss of US$1.9 million in the first half of 2023 to a gain of US$19.6 million in the first half of 2024. The company posted a gross margin of 19.3%, as income from its operations soared from a loss of US$1.7 million to US$22.5 million from one six-month period to the next.

This positive performance follows a number of encouraging developments for the company. In February, Vsun Solar signed a long-term polysilicon supply agreement with South Korean polysilicon producer OCI, and in April, the company commissioned a 4GW silicon wafer plant in Vietnam.

However, these positive developments could be short-lived, especially for a company such as Toyo Solar that wishes to involve itself in the US market, as there is growing appetite for tariffs on solar products sourced from Southeast Asia. Earlier this year, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee called on the Department of Commerce (DOC) to impose tariffs on products sourced from Southeast Asian countries beyond China, due to concerns that Chinese companies were ‘dumping’ products in neighbouring countries to sidestep trade restrictions currently in place between the US and China.

The committee alleges that cell imports from Vietnam to the US increased by 39% between April and August of this year, and the potential disruption of this trend caused by the implementation of new tariffs could have a significant impact on companies such as Vsun Solar and Toyo Solar, which are active in Vietnam.

21 October 2025
New York, USA
Returning for its 12th edition, Solar and Storage Finance USA Summit remains the annual event where decision-makers at the forefront of solar and storage projects across the United States and capital converge. Featuring the most active solar and storage transactors, join us for a packed two-days of deal-making, learning and networking.
16 June 2026
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 16-17 June 2026, will be our fifth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2027 and beyond.

Read Next

October 16, 2025
T1 Energy and Nextracker have agreed to use the latter’s steel module frames at the former’s new 5GW module manufacturing facility in Dallas.
October 16, 2025
US utility-scale solar additions grew by 56% in 2024, reaching 30GW from 2023’s 19GW and representing over 54% of all new electricity generation capacity added in the country last year.
October 15, 2025
The average price of a solar PPA signed in North America increased 4% between the second and third quarters of 2025, according to LevelTen.
October 15, 2025
Independent power producer (IPP) Geronimo has begun construction on it’s150MW solar project in Illinois and commissioned the 125MW PV project in Michigan.
Premium
October 14, 2025
OCI Holdings’ decision this week to buy a Vietnamese solar wafer facility to supply the US solar cell manufacturing industry makes clear the biggest vulnerability facing the sector today.
Premium
October 14, 2025
Perovskite, tariffs, Section 232 and FEOC were among the key topics discussed at PV CellTech USA this year in San Francisco.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK