Waaree Solar Americas announced it has started trial production of solar panels at its manufacturing facility in Brookshire, Texas.
India’s largest solar panel manufacturer, Waaree first announced the U.S. factory last year. The company now expects to commission its “phase 1” manufacturing capacity of 1.6 GW in the next few months.
“This milestone marks the beginning of our ambitious plans for further expansion in the United States, reinforcing our dedication to building a resilient domestic supply chain, supporting energy security in the U.S., and strengthening the India-U.S. trade and energy partnership,” commented Sunil Rathi, president of Waaree Solar Americas.
Waaree hopes to produce 3 GW of modules annually at the 546,000-sq.-ft factory outside Houston. The company originally announced investing $1 billion into the site to also include solar cell manufacturing. No further update was provided on its manufacturing plans.
“India’s largest solar panel manufacturer, Waaree first announced the U.S. factory last year. The company now expects to commission its “phase 1” manufacturing capacity of 1.6 GW in the next few months.”
Is this good news or not? I’m getting flashbacks to the AD/CVD filed by company Auxin in California against Malaysian built solar PV panels with Chinese solar cell supply chains for years. Auxin reported to be a capacity of 150MW of panel manufacturing prowess, can’t necessarily compete against the likes of Indian solar PV companies like Waaree. The dynamics and geopolitics are starting to edge out more efficient solar PV panels options for “superior” American assembled Chinese panels from the likes of Jinko Solar, JA Solar, Trina Solar all with U.S. factories. Companies like Maxeon are held back from import into the U.S. due to a question of violation of the Congress Uyghur Act and possibly Chinese tariff avoidance on Solar PV cells made in China. This kind of turmoil creates doubt in consumers wanting to get a solar PV system with smart BESS for their homes.