Community Solar

Summit Ridge now securing all key solar components domestically

Summit Ridge now securing all key solar components domestically
(An aerial view of the 3 MW Morgan Solar 4 community solar project in Murrayville, IL. Courtesy: Summit Ridge )

Community solar developer Summit Ridge Energy has placed its first order for domestically manufactured inverters from longtime partner Siemens, marking a significant milestone for Summit Ridge, which says it now secures all key solar panel components domestically, including modules, racking, and inverters.

To fulfill the order, Siemens plans to manufacture 1,000 inverters that qualify for the domestic content adder under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), with scheduled deliveries to Summit Ridge projects across Illinois and Virginia starting in the first quarter of 2025. The order totals approximately 125 megawatts (MW).

“We are excited to partner with Siemens on this agreement, which is enabling our team to exceed the domestic content requirements outlined in the IRA,” said Mike Dillon, senior vice president of operations at Summit Ridge Energy. “By sourcing domestically manufactured inverters, we are not only supporting American jobs but also ensuring the reliability and quality of our solar projects. This is a win-win for our company and the communities we serve.”  

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“Siemens is proud to support Summit Ridge as it sources stateside, not only leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act, but also bolstering a strong domestic supply chain for solar equipment,” added David Pisano, the U.S. segment head of utility systems and solutions at Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA. “Siemens is pleased to expand our smart infrastructure manufacturing footprint in the U.S., building utility-scale string inverters at our new Wisconsin factory. We applaud Summit Ridge for its commitment to growing domestic solar equipment as part of prudent energy security policy for the United States.”   

Since launching in 2017, Summit Ridge has raised more than $5 billion in project capital to finance more than 200 solar farms servicing 50,000 homes and businesses nationwide. Most of its projects are located in Illinois, Maine, Maryland, and Virginia; last year Summit Ridge also commissioned its first battery energy storage projects in New York City.

Connecting the domestic supply chain

In June, Summit Ridge expanded its partnership with PV manufacturer, EPC service provider, and IRA adder enthusiast Qcells, committing to purchase an additional 800 MW of Qcells solar panels, adding to an existing 1.2 GW deal announced last April by Vice President Kamala Harris at Qcells’ Dalton, Georgia manufacturing facility, where most of those panels will be made.

Summit Ridge and Qcells bill their agreement as “the largest domestic community solar purchase in history,” and those panels will help develop more than 100 additional Summit Ridge community solar projects. Qcells says it will continue to provide Summit Ridge with battery storage and software solutions under separate procurement agreements.

Solar module manufacturing capacity in the United States nearly doubled in 2023, increasing from 8.5 GW to 16.1 GW, according to a Wood Mackenzie and Solar Energy Industries Association report. While most solar cells installed in U.S. projects still come from southeast Asia, a completely domestic solar supply chain is starting to take shape, riding the coattails of the IRA’s domestic content adders.

Heliene and India manufacturer Premier Energies recently announced plans to produce an annual capacity of 1 GW of n-Type cells at a plant near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Heliene is also partnering with NorSun, the only remaining ingot and wafer producer in the Western Hemisphere, on a 5 GW wafer factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma which is expected to open in 2026. The only other known planned ingot and wafer site comes courtesy of Qcells in Cartersville, Georgia, which is set to be the first fully integrated silicon-based solar manufacturing facility built in the United States in more than a decade (and its largest ever). First announced in January 2023, the plant will make up to 3.3 GW annually of larger-format wafer sizes for distributed and utility-scale projects.

By the end of 2024, a US-made solar panel will still cost almost three times as much as one produced in China, according to BloombergNEF research.