{"id":108463,"date":"2025-02-03T09:46:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T14:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/\/?p=108463"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T19:15:14","slug":"americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"America’s largest silicon solar cell manufacturer opens its doors
SPW visits ES Foundry's 3-GW cell factory in South Carolina.<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

The solar industry recently welcomed the largest silicon solar cell manufacturing outfit to ever open its doors within the United States — the 3-GW factory operated by ES Foundry in Greenwood, South Carolina.<\/p>\n

There have been many announcements<\/a> by companies wanting to start solar cell manufacturing in the United States, but very few have made real progress since manufacturing tax credits were first included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022<\/a>. Only one company started cell operations before the end of 2024 \u2014 Suniva in Norcross, Georgia. That factory had an easier start than others, considering the site had already manufactured silicon solar cells for nearly 10 years before shutting down in 2017. Suniva updated equipment and is once again supplying<\/a> U.S. panel assembly plants with American-made PERC solar cells.<\/p>\n

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ES Foundry in South Carolina. Credit: Solar Power World<\/p><\/div>\n

Now the country has its second cell factory, and its largest. Not only is ES Foundry producing more cells than Suniva (3 GW compared to Suniva\u2019s 1 GW), but it\u2019s approaching supply deals differently too. Whereas Suniva has gone the common route of initiating supply agreements with U.S. panel assemblers, ES Foundry is instead working with large-scale project developers and utilities to guarantee domestic content supplies. If a project needs American-made panels, ES Foundry will pen a three-way contract with the developer and their preferred module vendor. Although the partners were not publicly revealed, ES Foundry has already signed one of those three-way contracts in a multi-gigawatt supply agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At ES Foundry\u2019s ribbon cutting last week, domestic panel manufacturers, project developers and utilities were in attendance, eager to see the scale at which ES Foundry will soon be operating \u2014 product is rolling off the lines right now, and the company expects to reach 1 GW of manufacturing capacity by March and then 3 GW by August. Any amount of domestic cells is a hot commodity, ES Foundry CEO Alex Zhu told Solar Power World<\/em> at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cDomestic content is key,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone needs the ITC, [especially] if it\u2019s changed that you need domestic cells.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ES Foundry in South Carolina. Credit: Solar Power World<\/p><\/div>\n

There are many questions surrounding President Trump\u2019s support of the Inflation Reduction Act and its provisions that are supportive of domestic deployment and manufacturing of solar. One assumption is that the investment tax credit (ITC) will be updated to require domestic content<\/a> to receive the full credit amount. And right now, the easiest way for solar panels to qualify as \u201cdomestic\u201d is to use American-made cells.<\/p>\n

ES Foundry is making bifacial PERC cells, a logical choice to avoid the unpredictable future of TOPCon panel production<\/a> in the United States. The cells first start as gray silicon wafers and go through many steps on their seven-hour journey to finished product \u2014 things like diffusion, etching, oxidation, back passivation, plasma enhanced chemical vapor disposition and screen printing. The \u201cdiffusion\u201d step is likely the most important, as that is when the dope paths (p- and n-type processes<\/a>) are established. Only when the diffusion step is done on American soil can a solar cell be considered domestic-made and qualify for any domestic content advantages.<\/p>\n

Zhu said that while the 4\u00a2\/W 45X manufacturing credit<\/a> is a nice bonus for solar cell makers, ES Foundry is more concerned with meeting domestic content requirements for its end customers. That domestic content play is what will keep ES Foundry going while President Trump\u2019s agenda is ironed out.<\/p>\n

SPW visits the plant<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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ES Foundry in South Carolina. Credit: Solar Power World<\/p><\/div>\n

The first thing noticed upon approaching the ES Foundry building is the scale \u2014 the factory is large with gas offtakes coming off its sides. The \u201cfoundry\u201d is in a former building used by Fujifilm to make inkjet paper and other photo products. Zhu said that the height of the Fujifilm building is what first attracted him to the space, as there aren\u2019t many existing 70-ft tall manufacturing sites in America. Fujifilm occupied five stories of the building; ES Foundry knocked out four stories to make one large open space to fit chemical piping and manufacturing equipment. The building\u2019s height could potentially accommodate silicon ingot pulling and wafering in the future, if financial aspects make sense, Zhu said. It would be unique to have a site ready to go and not rely on a green-build<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The difference between a panel assembler and a cell manufacturer is apparent at once. Solar panel manufacturers are assembling cells, backsheets, junction boxes and frames. Cell manufacturers are more chemical-focused and rely on a clean operation. Before entering the plant, workers (and visitors) have to don head-to-toe protective gear and walk through an air bath to remove airborne contaminates. Zhu said ES Foundry is able to source most of the chemicals used in manufacturing \u2014 phosphorus, silicon nitrate, etc. \u2014 in the United States, while, of course, the wafers, silver paste and aluminum paste are coming from Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

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ES Foundry in South Carolina. Credit: Solar Power World<\/p><\/div>\n

Besides finding a building that was the right height and equipped with significant electricity and wastewater hookups, ES Foundry was fortunate the local Greenwood workforce was already familiar with chemical processing. Ascend, a nylon polymer and fiber manufacturer just down the street, recently announced it was closing its doors<\/a>. ES Foundry has already hired many former Ascend employees and is holding more job fairs locally. Construction on ES Foundry\u2019s interior took just eight months, and 125 workers are now on the payroll. The company expects to have 300 employees by the end of March and 500 by Q3, which would make ES Foundry one of the largest employers in Greenwood.<\/p>\n

This may be the year for more solar cell manufacturers<\/a> to come online in the United States. Qcells is close to opening its wafer-cell-panel operations in Georgia and Silfab is still hopeful to begin cell manufacturing in South Carolina. Other companies like Boviet Solar (North Carolina) and Canadian Solar (Indiana) could begin silicon cell operations within the next 18 months. They will join Suniva and ES Foundry in the revitalization of the U.S. solar manufacturing industry \u2014 and not a minute too soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future begins now,\u201d Zhu said, as ES Foundry executives officially cut the ribbon on the country\u2019s largest solar cell manufacturing plant.<\/p>\n

Follow SPW’s domestic manufacturing coverage here.<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The solar industry recently welcomed the largest silicon solar cell manufacturing outfit to ever open its doors within the United States — the 3-GW factory operated by ES Foundry in Greenwood, South Carolina. There have been many announcements by companies wanting to start solar cell manufacturing in the United States, but very few have made…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1401,"featured_media":108467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2650],"tags":[5557],"class_list":{"2":"type-post","10":"entry","11":"has-post-thumbnail"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica's largest silicon solar cell manufacturer opens its doors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The solar industry recently welcomed the largest silicon solar cell manufacturing outfit to ever open its doors within the United States -- the 3-GW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America's largest silicon solar cell manufacturer opens its doors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The solar industry recently welcomed the largest silicon solar cell manufacturing outfit to ever open its doors within the United States -- the 3-GW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Solar Power World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarPowerWorld\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-03T14:46:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-03T19:15:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ES-Foundry-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelly Pickerel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solarkellyp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SolarPowerWorld\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelly Pickerel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/\",\"name\":\"America's largest silicon solar cell manufacturer opens its doors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ES-Foundry-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-03T14:46:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-03T19:15:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/#\/schema\/person\/6f941a69e40d7cb71df74979910822c6\"},\"description\":\"The solar industry recently welcomed the largest silicon solar cell manufacturing outfit to ever open its doors within the United States -- the 3-GW\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/\/2025\/02\/americas-largest-silicon-solar-cell-manufacturer-opens-its-doors\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ES-Foundry-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/ES-Foundry-1.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"ES Foundry in South Carolina. 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