Solar Spotlight: Playing the long game in domestic solar panel manufacturing

Trina Solar US, the domestic arm of the global PV module manufacturer, is ramping up production in the United States. On this episode of Solar Spotlight, Adam Macaluso, national accounts manager for U.S. channel business at Trina Solar, shares an update on Trina’s U.S. manufacturing footprint, as well as the company’s near future plans.

A written portion of this podcast is below but be sure to listen to the full episode on your preferred podcast service.

Contractor’s Corner by Solar Power World · Solar Spotlight: Playing the long game in domestic solar panel manufacturing

SPW: What is new with Trina Solar US?

Adam Macaluso: We have been around for 27 years, which I believe makes us the oldest and largest manufacturer out there. Last year, when we tallied it all up, it puts us at 205-GW module shipments shipped around the world for various branches. We’ve been in the U.S. since about 2009 and we have over 100 employees today when we started off with probably about a dozen or so, and we have just been growing and achieving so much. We have all these fantastic new team members. Things have been going very, very well for us as of late — a lot of new growth, a lot of new friendly faces here in the United States.

Specifically, the biggest thing that we have going is our new factory. It’s in Wilmer, Texas. It is a 5-GW facility that will produce our new 210-mm n-type TOPCon modules, that will handle our utility modules, our commercial modules and our residential modules all at the same time. It’s about 1.35 million ft2 — huge facility, 24 football fields large — and that is going to supply all of our modules to the U.S. market starting next year, and should create, when it’s running up at full tilt, about 1,500 direct full-time jobs.

What’s in Trina Solar’s plan for next year and beyond?

What we’re looking at is the n-type TOPCon module — our new bread and butter moving forward. The short version is it’s the entire wattage in the same size footprint to what folks are used to. It’ll be a monofacial panel, U.S.-made, of course, and we’ll have a higher wind load rating — 6,000 psi front side, 5,400 psi backside — stronger frames, and it’s still going be the same weight, so it’s still under the 50-lb limit. A lot of incredibly smart folks that we work with have been putting in a lot of hours to make this product coming out of the Wilmer facility, basically the cream of the crop.

How does Trina match up to other manufacturers?

We have a really good blend of what I would call a “cost-to-quality” ratio. We have a lot of dedicated R&D around the planet, our own R&D facilities, and we put a lot of time and effort into making the best quality panel. I think that’s the thing that separate us: how much time and effort we put into what we do, our price, cost-to-quality ratio, along with manufacturing.

What is Trina’s focus in the residential market?

We always try to think about our product with the installer in mind, and the homeowner. How is this going to look and function on somebody’s roof at the end of the day? And we think about that not only from the physical installation aspect of it, like the aesthetics, the weight, those kinds of things, but also the long term. What are those people going to need in terms of support for the next 25 years? Are they going to need a U.S.-based warranty team? Yes, of course we have that. Are they going to need local sales and support staff? Yes, we have that. And then what other value-added services do we have to offer as well? Looking into the future, U.S.-made panels, additional capacity is coming online in the future, always trying to innovate and find ways that will benefit our partners moving forward for the next 27 years.

This podcast is sponsored by Trina Solar US