The proposed facility is expected to have a minimum production capacity of 3 gigawatts with the possibility to scale production to 6 GW annually and is anticipated to create up to 1,500 new direct jobs by 2025. The facility is expected to be among the first in the United States to produce solar cells, the fundamental building block of PV modules.
See also: European solar market grows by almost 50 percent
"Recent policy tailwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act have served as a catalyst for our solar manufacturing ambitions in the US, ushering in a new era of made-in-America energy," said Enrico Viale, head of Enel North America.
PV module production nowhere near expected demand
Currently, Enel is evaluating possible sites for the new factory and expects to begin construction in mid-2023. It's anticipated that the first panels will be available to the market by the end of 2024. Fewer than five large-scale solar module manufacturing facilities (over 1 gigawatt) are currently operating in the US, while annual US solar PV installations are projected to grow from 16 gigawatts in 2022 to 41 gigawatts by the end of 2025, according to Wood Mackenzie.
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Enel has plenty of experience from the 3Sun Gigafactory in Catania, Italy, which is set to become Europe's largest factory producing high-performance bifacial photovoltaic modules. Enel intends to replicate the Gigafactory factory in the US to produce bifacial heterojunction (B-HJT) PV cells that capture more sunlight as the cells can respond to light on both front and rear surfaces. (mfo)
