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Active construction of solar PV module manufacturing plants in the U.S.

U.S. Solar PV Module Factory

First Solar (FSLR.US), the largest U.S. solar panel manufacturer, plans to spend $1.1 billion to build a solar plant in Alabama, U.S. It is expected to be operational by 2025, with an annual module capacity of 3.5 gigawatts. This is a major investment in the wake of the passage of the climate law.

First Solar said in August that it would invest about $1.2 billion to expand production in the United States. The company also announced plans last month to invest $270 million to build a research and development center in Ohio.

Southern and Midwestern states continue to win new solar, battery and electric vehicle investments, and while no Republicans in Congress support the climate bill previously signed by Biden, Republican-led Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio have been looking to build clean energy plants.

Separately, Enel North America, the U.S. renewable energy company of Italy’s Enel Group, plans to build a manufacturing plant in the U.S. to produce bifacial heterojunction (HJT) PV cells and modules, with an initial capacity of at least 3GW and a possible expansion to 6GW of annual capacity in the future.

Enel said that it is currently evaluating potential sites for the plant, not knowing whether the southern and Midwestern states are the target sites for the Enel Group, which plans to start construction in 2023, with the first PV modules hitting the market by the end of 2024.

This is reportedly Enel’s second PV manufacturing plant. Last year, Enel subsidiary 3Sun had announced that it would expand its Italian plant, with plans to increase its 200MW capacity to 3GW capacity by the second half of 2023.