Canadian solar panel manufacturer Hélienewhich has a manufacturing campus in Minnesota, has announced its partnership with First energies of India to set up production of silicon solar cells in the United States. Heliene is currently collecting cells from Premier’s facility in Hyderabad.
Under the agreement, the new US facility will have an annual production capacity of 1 GW of n-type cells to meet Heliene’s US needs and Premier’s own production plans. Heliene announced last year that it planned to start producing cells in the United States, but had not yet revealed any concrete plans.
“Premier Energies has been a valued partner of Heliene for many years and we share a commitment to providing the highest quality and most reliable products to solar customers. With demand for US-made modules and components growing, this is the perfect time to begin the next phase of our collaboration 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 make us true leaders in the effort to strengthen the U.S. solar energy manufacturing supply chain.”
Heliene currently operates an ~800 MW panel manufacturing campus in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. Because the majority of cells produced at the joint Heliene-Premier plant are destined for Heliene’s domestic panel assembly efforts, it is unknown whether Premier plans to sell additional supplies to other U.S. panel assemblers. No timeline or location has been announced for the joint panel manufacturing site.
Heliene also drew one 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 factory.
“As pioneers in solar technology and with our many years of experience in solar cell manufacturing, Premier Energies is proud to partner with a fellow innovator and market 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 address the largely unaddressed demand for U.S. cell manufacturing.”
Under the terms of the joint venture, Heliene will contribute construction, project management, human resources, finance and management, facilities operations, supply chain and logistics, and regulatory expertise. Premier will contribute cell technology engineering and operational expertise to the cell manufacturing process, production equipment selection, financial resources, raw material supplier relationships and management of supply agreements.
