JA Solar Takes US Solar Module Manufacturing Steps

• JA Solar has announced its 1^st US solar manufacturing plant to be located in Arizona
• The company has leased space in Phoenix to produce high efficiency solar panels for commercial, residential and utility scale solar
• To be built for $60 million investment, the fab is expected to start commercial operations in by the end of 2023

Chinese solar PV manufacturer JA Solar has picked the State of Arizona to locate its 1^st US solar manufacturing fab with an annual production capacity of 2 GW, scheduled to become operational by Q4/2023.

The company has already leased space for the highly automated fab in Phoenix region where it plans to produce high efficiency solar panels for commercial and residential rooftop, along with for utility scale solar power plants.

"We are very excited to be able to set up the first US solar module manufacturing facility in Arizona to provide our customers in the US the flexibility and ease of access to JA Solar's high-performance PV products," said President of JA Solar Aiqing Yang.

JA Solar expects to create more than 600 jobs locally with the manufacturing plant that's estimated to incur an investment worth $60 million.

Arizona is also the state where European solar cell and module maker Meyer Burger is building its 1^st US manufacturing facility in Goodyear (see Meyer Burger Zeroes In On Arizona, US).

Chinese manufacturers are on their toes with the US government implementing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) to bar any Xinjiang made polysilicon making its way into solar installations in the country, unless proven otherwise (see UFLPA Comes Into Force In The US).

At the same time, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has its eyes on Chinese companies shipping their products via Southeast Asian nations Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and/or Vietnam that it alleges of circumventing trade tariffs.

With a 2-year reprieve offered by President Joe Biden, Chinese manufacturers are likely to make use of this time to build their manufacturing capacity within the US so as not to lose access to this growing market (see US Finds Chinese Companies Dodging Circumvention Tariffs).

In any case, the financial incentives offered under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are too attractive to ignore, even for tier I Chinese companies that already enjoy a diversified market base globally.

Just recently, South Korea's Hanwha Q Cells increased its stakes in the US solar market aiming for 8.4 GW manufacturing capacity in the country, including a 3.3 GW ingot-to-module solar hub in Georgia (see Hanwha Solutions Planning 8.4 GW US Production Capacity). And

On a related note, JA Solar's Director of Product Technology Kun Tang will participate in TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on Solar Module Innovations 2023 Looking Back and Forth on January 31, 2023. Registrations to the event are free and can be done here.