As per an official announcement on Maxeon’s website, on August 10th, Maxeon, a subsidiary under TCL Central, revealed its strategic choice of Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the inaugural site for its expansion into photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing within the United States. Reports indicate that Maxeon has earmarked an impressive $1 billion investment to establish a cutting-edge 3GW solar cell and module plant in Albuquerque. This plant will be dedicated to both the design and production of the latest generation of TOPCon cells, alongside the company’s proprietary tiled PV modules. The driving force behind this initiative is to cater to the escalating domestic demand for PV modules across the United States.
Anticipated to become the primary large-scale PV manufacturing facility in New Mexico, the new plant is poised to surpass the capacities of existing silicon solar manufacturing plants in the United States, with its projected capacity being double that of the largest incumbent. Maxeon envisions commencing construction of this pioneering plant in the first quarter of 2024, with production slated to commence by 2025. Once fully operational, the plant is set to generate approximately 1,800 job opportunities, encompassing roles in highly skilled manufacturing and engineering. Furthermore, this facility is positioned to manufacture millions of solar panels annually, catering extensively to the U.S. market. The comprehensive scope of the new plant is geared towards serving the utility-scale power plant segment, in addition to distributed generation rooftop applications.
Maxeon has disclosed that the progress of the new plant project is contingent upon the approval of a loan application by the U.S. Department of Energy. Notably, this pursuit is not singular to Maxeon, as an additional six Chinese enterprises, namely Seraphim, Jinko, JA, Haoneng, LONGi, and Canadian Solar, have made announcements regarding their plans to establish PV plants within the United States. Collectively, these initiatives encompass an impressive photovoltaic module production capacity of approximately 14.7GW.
