Heliene, Premier Energies to make silicon solar cells in US
Canadian solar panel manufacturer Heliene, which has a manufacturing campus in Minnesota, announced it would partner with Premier Energies of India to establish silicon solar cell manufacturing in the United States. Heliene currently sources cells from Premier’s facility in Hyderabad.
Under the agreement, the new U.S. facility will have 1-GW annual manufacturing capacity of n-type cells to supply Heliene’s U.S. requirements as well as Premier’s own manufacturing plans. Heliene announced last year that it intended to start cell manufacturing in the United States but had yet to reveal any concrete plans.
“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. 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,” said Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene. “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.”
Heliene currently operates an ~800-MW panel manufacturing campus in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. With the majority of cells produced at the joint Heliene-Premier facility going toward Heliene’s domestic panel assembling efforts, it is unknown if Premier plans to sell extra supplies to other American panel assemblers. There has been no timeline or facility location announced for the joint panel manufacturing site.
Heliene also signed an agreement earlier this year with Suniva, a cell manufacturer restarting in Georgia. The three-year contract allows Heliene to source cells from Suniva’s 1-GW plant.
“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.”
Under the terms of the joint venture, Heliene will contribute construction, project management, human resources, financial resource 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.
See SPW’s list of U.S. solar manufacturers here.