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.
