Solar panel production begins at Meyer Burger plant in Arizona

Swiss solar technology pioneer Meyer Burger has started solar module assembly production at its new plant in Goodyear, Arizona. A factory audit was recently completed, and Meyer Burger said it passed without any issues.

The solar cells being used in the American-assembled panels were produced at Meyer Burger’s German facility. Eventually, Meyer Burger will switch to using cells made at its new plant currently under construction in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Meyer Burger also said it is working out relationships for more domestic components and should announce the binding agreements in Q3 this year. In addition, the company is finalizing loan agreements for disbursement of 45X credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. Meyer Burger has also submitted a loan application to the Dept. of Energy to finance its solar cell plant in Colorado, and it is currently under review.

Meyer Burger previously stated that the Arizona panel factory would have 1.5 GW of annual production capacity with room to expand to 2 GW. The Colorado cell factory is expected to have 2 GW of annual production capacity.

Meyer Burger specializes in heterojunction technology (HJT), a combo of crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon thin-film. The company recently shut down its German solar panel production facility due to the collapse of the European panel manufacturing market. Meyer Burger is keeping its German cell plant operating until the Colorado plant gets off the ground.

See SPW’s list of U.S. solar manufacturers here.