Solar is a critical part of a strategy to make America energy independent, create jobs, and achieve energy dominance. The technology is straightforward: nuclear fusion in the sun releases photons that hurtle toward earth where they strike solar panels, excite electrons, and produce usable power.

It is a technology that was invented right here in America, but over the past 20 years, like in many other industries, U.S. manufacturing has struggled to compete against countries that invested in building a domestic industry. While the country maintained important solar manufacturing in some areas, domestic solar products such as panels were fewer and farther between.

Surging Ahead, Leapfrogging the Competition

Things have changed. In 2017, the U.S. ranked 14th in the world for solar panel manufacturing capacity. Starting in 2018 and then accelerating in 2022, additional factories started springing up left and right throughout the country, with a focus in the South.

Major investments poured into building factories and expanding existing facilities. Today, the U.S. has leapfrogged competitors and ranks 3rd in manufacture of solar panels, passing large solar manufacturing countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Turkey.

A new report by SEIA and Wood Mackenzie found that the industry had reached a critical threshold:

After a record Q3, U.S. solar manufacturing has reached a critical threshold. At full capacity, American solar module factories can now produce enough to meet nearly all demand for solar in the U.S.

As more solar deployment happens, more manufacturing will come online.

Big and Getting Bigger

The success taking place in America is stunning. Companies are investing billions of dollars to produce American-made solar panels in states like Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Washington, South Carolina, and Alabama, to name just a few. One of the most interesting attributes is the varying sizes of the facilities. Many are expansive, spanning the dimensions of several football fields. Some companies are building in multiple states or multiple cities and towns, seeking to meet the country’s rapidly growing energy needs.

Despite the growth, American panel production is not done expanding — there are more factories on the way, either announced or under construction. And that means more American jobs as well — if we maintain policies that keep the growth on track, by 2033, America’s solar manufacturing workforce will grow even more.

Beyond the Solar Panel

Trackers and Racking

There is more that goes into a solar project than just the panels. One of the most common and important components is solar trackers. These pieces of machinery turn solar panels to, as the name suggests, “track” the sun. They are manufactured to specification to withstand key wind speeds, and, most importantly, lead to the production of a lot more energy.

Major facilities produce trackers in Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and beyond. One manufacturer even re-opened a shuttered Bethlehem Steel facility outside Pittsburgh.

All those trackers have to be held up by something, and frequently they are supported by steel piles driven into the ground by high-tech pile drivers. Companies in West Virginia and Texas are important suppliers of steel piles to the American solar industry.

On roofs, solar racking is common. Companies are manufacturing across the country, including in places like Utah and Illinois. Top racking and tracking manufacturers have invested extensively in U.S. facilities.

Inverters

Another exciting development is the onshoring of domestic inverter manufacturing. Inverters play an essential role in solar power production, turning the energy produced by a solar panel from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) so that it is usable by AC homes and the grid.

They come in several sizes – large solar projects use string and central inverters that look like massive electrical boxes, while residential systems routinely use microinverters, string inverters, and optimized inverter systems that can be smaller than a table computer.

And all types are now being produced in the United States. Siemens is now manufacturing in Kenosha, Wisconsin while EPC Power is opening a facility in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Japan-based TMEIC just opened its new facility in Texas.

Enphase manufactures microinverters in South Carolina and Texas, while Israel-founded SolarEdge is producing optimized inverter systems in Florida and Texas.

The Shift Upstream

The wave of new solar panel factories is also creating demand for new factories to produce inputs, finally overcoming perhaps the biggest industry challenge, a classic chicken and egg problem. Absent solar panel factories to create demand, input manufacturers weren’t built in the United States because they didn’t have anyone to sell to.

But with the new panel facilities coming online, earlier parts of the supply chain are now starting to follow, surging ahead. American solar cell manufacturing resumed in Q3 2024 for the first time since 2019 when Suniva re-opened its Georgia cell factory, creating 240 new jobs. Additional cell manufacturing has been announced in South Carolina, Georgia, and Indiana. All told, 12 GW of cell production is currently under construction, and another 34 GW has been announced. Once operational, these facilities will also have the capacity to meet current American demand.

Looking further upstream, wafer manufacturing is also taking preliminary steps to get underway. QCells already has a 3.3 GW ingot and wafer plant under construction in Georgia, and news reports indicate that at least one other major U.S company is preparing to move ahead. In the polysilicon space, companies like REC Silicon have begun re-investing in facilities in reaction to other U.S. solar manufacturing announcements and direct U.S. investment.

What’s Different This Time

The success of the domestic solar manufacturing buildout is unique — there is no other country in the world, outside of China, that is building a scaled, unified, and complete domestic supply chain. Other countries have sometimes increased production of certain products. For example, individual Southeast Asian countries have produced solar wafers, cells, and panels, and South Korea has produced solar cells and panels.

The difference is that, so long as we don’t reverse the policies that got us to this point and can be patient as future facilities are built, America is going to have ability to produce the key components – from polysilicon up to the final panel, in addition to inverters, trackers, and racking.

SEIA can say with confidence that this is only the beginning. That’s because we are talking to dozens of other companies that are preparing to launch the next wave of domestic solar manufacturing. There is more work to be done to keep things on track, but if key policies stay in place and are not reversed, this may be one of the most successful onshoring efforts in history.

By the Numbers

• American solar manufacturers have announced $36 billion of investments in the last two years. These investments will create over 44,000 manufacturing jobs.
• 67 new solar and storage manufacturing facilities have come online because of federal manufacturing policies, and 48 facilities are under active construction.

These investments are directly benefiting American communities with high quality jobs and a new opportunity to lead our nation’s energy economy. Solar is putting power on the grid at a time when we’re seeing the largest increase in electricity demand since World War II.

Maintaining business-friendly federal policies is critical to regaining control of the clean energy supply chain and giving Americans the low-cost power they need to keep our country running.