Enel North America, through its subsidiary 3Sun USA LLC, has established an industrial production facility in the US for the production of photovoltaic modules.
The proposed facility is expected to have a minimum production capacity of 3 GW, with the possibility of increasing production to 6 GW per year.
“The new policy tailwinds from the Inflation Reduction Act serve as a catalyst for our US solar manufacturing ambitions, ushering in a new era of American-made energy,” Enrico said. Viale, head of Enel North America. “With this announcement, our goal is to build a strong home solar supply chain that accelerates and strengthens the US transition to clean energy. In doing so, we are creating thousands of -thousands of new jobs, supporting local economies and strengthening the solar industry.
Currently, Enel is evaluating possible sites for the new factory and hopes to start construction in the middle of 2023. It is expected that the first panels will be available on the market by the end of 2024. Less than five large solar module manufacturing facilities (over 1 GW) are currently operating in the US, while annual US solar PV installations are expected to grow. from 16 GW in 2022 to 41 GW by the end of 2025, according to Wood Mackenzie.
Enel will use its expertise and experience from its 3Sun Gigafactory in Catania, Italy, which is set to become Europe’s largest factory producing high-performance bifacial photovoltaic modules. Enel intends to replicate the Gigafactory in the US to produce bifacial heterojunction (B-HJT) PV cells that capture more sunlight because the cells can respond to light on the front and back surfaces.
3Sun already produces high-efficiency cells, breaking a record in 2020 by achieving 24.63% efficiency. Through an R&D program, the PV panels will be further developed to also include a tandem structure, which uses two stacked cells that allow more light to be captured compared to single structures. -cell, which will provide higher overall cell efficiency. The combination of bifacial PV panels and tandem cell structure offers significant improvements in efficiency, enabling PV modules to exceed 30% efficiency, obtaining higher average energy production. The low degradation technology ensures a longer useful life for the modules, and the high density of the cells is ideal for a variety of applications, including land-constrained utility-scale installations or rooftops. .
