Canadian solar panel manufacturer Heliene is planning a new 1-GW solar panel and 1.5-GW solar cell manufacturing plant in Minnesota, as first reported by Reuters.
Inside Heliene’s factory. Courtesy Vimeo
The company already supports a ~700-MW solar panel campus in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. Solar Power World visited the newly expanded factory last year. Heliene should upgrade its first, original manufacturing line in Mountain Iron from 150 to 300 MW by October of this year.
Heliene also has manufacturing operations in Ontario, Canada.
According to the Reuters report and confirmed by SPW, Heliene will spend $145 million on the new facility and expects it to begin producing modules in 2024 and cells in 2025. An exact location for the factory in Minnesota has not been disclosed.
So how many millions of gallons of water will this plant consume? Given 1MW of cells produces uses 1.5 million gallons of water give or take.