US cell producer presses on with expansion plans despite policy uncertainty

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The expansion of ES Foundry’s PERC cell production line in South Carolina will proceed despite recent policy upheaval. Image: ES Foundry.

US solar cell manufacturer ES Foundry has revealed that its plans to expand production have been delayed by half a year due to recent trade and tax credit policy uncertainties.

In an interview published on PV Tech Premium today, the company’s CEO Alex Zhu said the company had planned to have its second phase expansion completed by the end of 2025, but was forced to rethink its timetable.

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ES Foundry is a newcomer to the US solar manufacturing ecosystem, having only begun production from its new South Carolina facility at the start of this year. The company is bucking the current preference for TOPCon technology by producing PERC cells, primarily to avoid patent litigation.

Zhu said the production from its existing production line is sold out until 2027.  

But when considering the timing of its second phase, under which it plans to expand annual production capacity from 1GW to 3GW, he said recent policy upheaval in the US had forced a six-month pause until it became clear what level of demand there would be for its cells:

“With the trade policy, with the ITC, UFLPA, all those uncertainties made it difficult to pull the trigger to start the second phase. Given our original plan, the second phase should have been finished in October this year, but now we’ve pushed it to Q1 next year.”

Zhu said the recent publication of Treasury rules on safe harbour deadlines for projects, while more stringent for developers, gave ES Foundry the necessary supply chain clarity to move ahead with its expansion:

“When we got our customer reconfirmation on their needs for domestic cells, then we said, ‘Okay, with those kinds of needs, it’s safer or more realistic to do the expansion.’”

You can read a full version of the interview on our Premium channel – subscription required.

Alex Zhu will speak at our PV CellTech USA conference in San Francisco on 7-8 October 2025, discussing the evolving PV manufacturing landscape in the US. For full details and booking, click here.

7 October 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
PV Tech has been running an annual PV CellTech Conference since 2016. PV CellTech USA, on 7-8 October 2025 is our third PV CellTech conference dedicated to the U.S. manufacturing sector. The events in 2023 and 2024 were a sell out success and 2025 will once again gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing in the U.S. out to 2030 and beyond.
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.

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