The U.S., long plagued by pressure to import solar modules from abroad, is now turning to boosting domestic manufacturing to power the energy transition as decarbonization and climate goals are threatened due to the shortage.
Recently, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) released a roadmap for enabling a domestic supply chain in the U.S., “Promoting U.S. Solar Manufacturing,” a report that explores how the U.S. can move from its current state of limited production to a mature, economic-powering domestic energy supply chain.
At present, the United States has the ability to produce metallurgical grade silicon, polysilicon, steel, aluminum, resin, shelves and brackets and other materials. However, there are significant gaps in the supply chain. The U.S. currently has no domestic solar ingot, wafer or cell manufacturing capacity and limited capacity to produce solar modules, inverters and trackers, SEIA said. Therefore, these segments must be targeted at 50 GW.
With the correct application of the new Reducing Inflation Act incentives, the U.S. should be on track to achieve or exceed the 50 GW target across all segments of the solar supply chain, the SEIA report said.
SEIA said domestic manufacturers should first focus on building downstream production and backfilling components with imports, while building upstream domestic production. While it will take two to three years to expand domestic module capacity, it will take another three to five years to build up substantial domestic ingot, wafer and cell manufacturing capacity.
American manufacturers must create demand products by selling at competitive prices and offering quality products. Such cost competitiveness may only be achieved on a large scale, which requires significant up-front investment, the report said.
