The solar industry has called on the European Commission to reduce curtailment. Credit: Fit Ztudio via Shutterstock.

Canadian solar energy company Heliene has announced plans to expand its US operations with a new solar panel and photovoltaic (PV) cell factory.

Heliene’s CEO Martin Pochtaruk told Reuters that the company is looking to locate the new factory in the state of Minnesota. Heliene already has one factory in Minnesota, at Iron Mountain, as well as another near the border in Ontario, Canada.

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The new $145m (C$191.4m) factory will have an annual productive capacity of 1GW of panels, as well as 1.5GW of cells. This would double the productive capacity of its current operations.

Although Heliene is yet to decide on a final location for the factory, Pochtaruk confirmed it will be in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Despite clarity about its location, the company expects the factory to begin producing solar panel modules by 2024 and solar cells by 2025.

The $145m for the factory has been provided by Orion Infrastructure capital (OIC). OIC in 2023 granted Heliene $150m in credit for the new factory, as well as $5m in equity.

Explaining its logic, an OIC spokesperson stated that the company had been looking to invest in the solar supply chain since the inception of the US’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

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As the factory will be based in Minnesota, Heliene customers could be eligible for a 10% tax credit under the IRA. To be eligible, 40% or more of a project’s components must be of US origin. Manufacturing PV cells is a way to avail the scheme, meaning Heliene would be a more attractive option to US renewable businesses than Heliene’s competitors operating outside the country. The factory will also be the first Heliene factory to produce cells and not just panels alone.

Heliene is turning its eye towards sourcing other panel components domestically to better help the customers qualify. Other companies such as Italy’s Enel and Hanwha of South Korea are also planning to produce solar cells in the US.