Solar

Heliene and Premier Energies to open new U.S. solar cell manufacturing facility

Heliene and Premier Energies to open new U.S. solar cell manufacturing facility
An inspection station at the exit of the stringers before moving to the lay out station at Heliene's Mountain Iron Facility (Credit: Heliene)

Heliene continues to make strides toward solidifying a solar supply chain in the United States.

On Thursday, the PV module provider announced a joint venture with Premier Energies, India’s second-largest solar cell manufacturing company, that will result in the opening of a solar cell manufacturing facility in Minnesota.

Under the terms of the agreement, the new facility will produce an annual aggregate capacity of 1 GW NTyp cells to supply Heliene’s U.S. cell requirement in addition to Premier’s. Heliene will contribute to construction, project management, human resources, financial resources and management, facility operations, supply chain and logistics, and regulatory expertise. Premier will contribute cell technology engineering and operational expertise in the manufacturing process of the cells, manufacturing equipment selection, financial resources, raw material vendor relationships, and supply agreements management.

“Premier Energies has been a valued partner of Heliene’s for many years now and we share a commitment to providing the highest-quality, most reliable products to solar customers,” noted Heliene CEO Martin Pochtaruk. “With demand for U.S.-made modules and components growing, now is the perfect time to embark on the next phase of our partnership with this joint venture.”

“Our new cell manufacturing facility will not only expand the footprint and impact of each of our companies, but it will also establish us as true leaders in the effort to friend-shore up the U.S. solar manufacturing supply chain,” he added.

This joint venture builds on a longstanding partnership between Heliene and Premier Energies. Heliene currently sources solar cells from PEPPL’s Hyderabad facility for use in module manufacturing at its Mountain Iron, Minnesota location.

New domestic PV cell manufacturing capacity still needs to be added to meet increasing demands for solar modules, asserts Heliene. The new facility will directly address this demand while capitalizing on IRA incentives; cells produced at the new site and incorporated into existing U.S. module manufacturing operations will also support developers seeking additional tax credits and incentives for their solar projects, including a lucrative domestic content bonus adder.

“As pioneers in solar technology and with our years of experience in solar cell manufacturing, Premier Energies is proud to partner with a fellow innovator and industry leader in Heliene,” said Chiranjeev Saluja, managing director at Premier Energies. “This joint venture will leverage the best of both companies’ resources and knowledge to tap the largely unaddressed demand for U.S. cell manufacturing.”

The companies intend to announce further details on the project’s scope and timeline soon.

This partnership is the latest in a growing list for Heliene. In April, the company announced a deal to provide 2 GW of PV modules to renewable energy infrastructure investor Excelsior Energy Capital. According to the terms, the majority of the modules to be supplied to Excelsior will be produced in the United States.

In March of this year, Heliene announced a three-year strategic sourcing contract with formerly-inoperative solar manufacturer Suniva that will ultimately produce the first “made in the U.S.A.” PV module that’s eligible for domestic tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act. Suniva announced a restart of its manufacturing operations in Georgia last fall. Heliene says it will incorporate Suniva’s U.S.-made solar cells into its U.S.-made solar modules; currently, all U.S.-made solar crystalline modules use only imported cells.

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