US Solar PV Manufacturing Confronts Supply Chain And Policy Risks

The US solar PV sector, one of the world’s fastest-growing markets, faces sharp policy shifts under Trump 2.0 as federal support transforms. Yet solar PV manufacturing remains a focal point, underscoring the industry’s resilience despite rising uncertainties. 

The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is being dismantled and replaced by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), alongside new tariffs and growing domestic competition. This volatile landscape means the solar industry is treating each day as a new challenge. Nevertheless, investors still continue to support the sector, though the path ahead is complex. At the 2nd edition of TaiyangNews’ Solar - Made in the USA (SMUSA 2025) summit in Las Vegas, co-organized with EUPD Research and RE+, stakeholders gathered to examine the latest developments and strategic outlook for US solar manufacturing across the module value chain. 

As times for solar have changed drastically in the US compared to the first SMUSA event in Anaheim last year, and unfortunately, not for the better, the concept was changed a little. Unlike in 2024, where a full day was dedicated to manufacturing along the module value chain, this year the module part was condensed to a half-day event (created by TaiyangNews). A separate half-day event in the afternoon focused on the manufacturing of BOS (which EUPD managed), allowing for a comprehensive view of the entire solar manufacturing process. 

At the opening of the module manufacturing part of the summit, TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela highlighted the evolving US policy landscape amid global trade challenges. Addressing senior PV executives at the event, including the main stakeholders in PV manufacturing along the module chain, he made a business case for continued investment in solar and adaptation to stay competitive. Citing a recent Ember study on 24/7 solar, Schmela noted that in Las Vegas, at the 97% benchmark towards full solar supply supported by battery storage, the LCOE is $104/MWh – 22% below last year’s global average and cheaper than coal ($118/MWh) or nuclear ($182/MWh), which in itself is a reason strong enough to continue the investment in solar. 

China, he said, has understood the potential for solar for energy security long before the others and is today not only the world’s dominant solar products manufacturer but also by far the leading solar PV market for years. This was also the case in H1 2025, when China installed twice the capacity of the rest of the world, providing the long-term investment certainty that most other markets lack. Especially in today’s changing geopolitical situation, “Countries better bet on solar in a resilient way, providing energy security in the long run as we create uninterrupted access to the full supply chain. In other words, significant local manufacturing capacities, possibly along the value chain, combined with diversified supply, is the way to go,” stressed Schmela. 

Speaking of domestic manufacturing, Russell Gold, Executive Vice President of Strategic Communications of the summit’s sponsor, T1 Energy, shared the company’s efforts to build a domestic supply chain. Formerly known as FREYR, T1 Energy has a 5 GW solar module production facility in Dallas, which it acquired from China’s Trinasolar, and is coming up with a 5 GW solar cell fab in Texas. The company recently entered a supply deal for next year with Corning, which converts polysilicon into wafers. Gold said that the build-out is central to creating jobs, ensuring energy security and industrial leadership, powering both the AI economy and everyday households.  

“Bringing solar back to the US means creating jobs and building energy security, securing energy dominance and advancing manufacturing. It means providing the megawatts needed to compete in the Al race and the megawatts needed to keep our homes cool on a hot summer day, without signing over half your paycheck,” stressed Gold. 

US Solar Manufacturing Outlook Brightens 

In the 1st session on policy frameworks and reasons to continue US PV manufacturing projects, Stacy J. Ettinger, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain & Trade of the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), was optimistic about the US solar manufacturing industry. Sharing the highlights from the latest US Solar Market Insight Q3 2025 report, Ettinger showed that the country has installed 247 GW DC of solar capacity since 2000. In H1 2025, it grew by 18 GW and is expected to install 33 GW DC of utility-scale solar this year (see US Installed 18 GW New Solar PV Capacity In H1 2025). 

To feed this demand, US solar module manufacturing has already surpassed 58 GW capacity, including 8.7 GW in H1 2025. Yet, further vertical integration is still taking time to become operational. Between 2024 and 2025, only 2 GW of cell production went live. It is expected to reach 12.5 GW in the coming months, assuming all planned factories come online as scheduled in 2025, exceeding 55 GW by 2028. As for battery energy storage systems (BESS), there is over 60 GWh of battery pack manufacturing, with 20 GWh currently in operation, which is likely to double by 2026.

Ettinger sees the 2-year window before Investment Tax Credits (ITC) and Production Tax Credits (PTC) expire as leading the market in the short term, and the ‘necessity’ to go solar in the long term, even under the OBBBA’s shadow.

Policy Reversal – Less for Solar, More for Gas 

Smirnow Law Principal John Smirnow outlined the challenges facing US solar manufacturing under OBBBA. He said the reversal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) provisions has slowed the sector’s momentum, with natural gas emerging as a strong competitor for federal policy support. “Solar energy’s hot streak has come to an end, gas won this round,” he emphasized. However, he believes that solar manufacturing will stabilize in the short term, thanks to IRA policy support for domestic content and Section 45X production credits. Meanwhile, demand will feel the heat from gas, as production timelines for turbine capacity decrease quickly from 5-7 years today down to 2-3 years. 

Need for Market Protection and National Security 

Smirnow highlighted America’s deep reliance on supply chains linked to China. While acknowledging ongoing decoupling efforts from China and China-linked entities, Smirnow argued that the growing scrutiny of Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) indicates foreign influence and control in the market. He warned that without tighter guardrails, Chinese investment in US manufacturing could undercut domestic gains as IRA incentives phase down, making market protection and national security arguments essential. “We have a four-year bridge,” he stressed. 

Solar deployment shouldn’t be the primary objective for the US solar sector; the technology must be considered a “national security imperative for both economic and energy security,” stressed Smirnow. 

IRA Growth Meets Supply Chain Limits 

Elissa Pierce, the Solar Module Supply Chain Analyst at Wood Mackenzie, shed some light on the policy shifts reshaping the US solar supply chain. She emphasized that the IRA incentivized US solar module manufacturing capacity by over 6-fold since August 2022. With capacity now exceeding annual installations, she believes that it will stay at essentially the same levels between 2025 and 2026, even though the pipeline is set to grow to 88 GW by the end of 2025 from 42 GW last year, towards 122 GW by 2030. 

While 2 cell makers have started production in the US since last year’s event – Suniva and ES Foundry -, Pierce showed that the upstream segment has not kept pace with module manufacturing growth, and the country remains dependent on imported components, which exposes them to trade tariffs. 

The US government’s AD/CVD tariffs on CMTV (Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam) imports are blocking the supply chain, while the new investigations against Laos, Indonesia, and India have only complicated problems for US PV power plant developers. 

Pierce stressed that high tariffs on Southeast Asia and India would constrain solar cell supply to the US, which doesn’t have enough of its own as yet. Currently, the global solar cell production capacity stands at 1,693 GW, of which China alone accounts for 1,493 GW, followed by CMTV with 96 GW, Indonesia and Laos with 36 GW, and India with 33 GW, among others. Even polysilicon production capacity will not be possible as its build-out will take years. Section 232 investigation on polysilicon and derivatives could cause further disruption, she warned (see Wood Mackenzie Calls Section 232 US Solar’s Biggest Challenge). 

She sees the MENA region becoming the next major cell and module supplier to the US, but again, mainly backed by Chinese companies. However, most factories are not expected to come online until 2026 or later. In such a scenario, the US is likely to take years to build a self-sufficient module supply chain. 

In a panel discussion that followed this session, the 3 speakers were joined by American Clean Power Association’s (ACP) VP Supply Chain and Manufacturing, MJ Shiao. Along with moderators, Michael Schemla of TaiyangNews and Senior Policy Analyst Christian Roselund from Clean Energy Associates, the panelists discussed steps to save US solar manufacturing in the current adversary policy environment. 

Funding Needed for US Solar Manufacturing 

Leading a session on vertical integration in the US solar module value chain, RCT Group Founder & CEO Prof. Dr. Peter Fath identified 6 pressing challenges for the domestic PV sector – capital bottlenecks, grid and permitting delays, workforce shortages, fragile supply chains, limited non-Chinese equipment support, and policy volatility. 

He noted that despite Washington’s push to reduce reliance on China, US module assembly equipment still largely originates from Chinese suppliers. Today, the US has only 2 GW DC of cell capacity operational, still based on PERC technology, since the industry’s new workhorse TOPCon comes with IP challenges. Access to capital remains a major hurdle in scaling further up. Yet Fath stressed the US’s incentive programs make it the right time to invest, calling for greater public funding to support RD&D activities. 

RCT Solutions, a globally active engineering company that has helped companies in Asia, Europe, and the US build ingot/wafer, cell, and module factories, presented a global comparison on PV manufacturing cost from ingots to wafers. And while China is the most competitive, closely trailed by India, he emphasized that production in the US is even more expensive than in Europe, with both significantly lagging behind China in each of the ingot-to-module segments. The main cost differences stem from labor, which is 3-4x higher, and material costs, which are 50-80% higher, said Fath. On top comes 40-70% higher equipment CapEx, if sourced from Western companies, and other factors. At the end of his presentation, Fath showed some projects RCT was involved in, and pointed to Kalyon in Türkiye, a vertically integrated ingot-to-module manufacturer, as a model that could prove very cost-effective, he added. “There is no need for more module capacity. We need better utilization. And despite policy uncertainty, now is the time to invest in ingot/wafer and cells capacities,” he concluded.

Push for Back Contact Adoption  

Dr. Radovan Kopecek, Head of Strategy at the International Solar Energy Research Center Konstanz (ISC Konstanz), gave a presentation titled Global Solar Technology Trends from Silicon to Modules. ISC, one of Europe’s leading solar technology research institutes, has been a pioneer in the development and industrialization of n-type cell concepts, helping customers with process transfers into manufacturing around the world, including Suniva in the US. Kopecek called for broader diversification and advancement of solar technology in the US market. While PERC remains the dominant technology among US manufacturers, most of the world has already shifted to TOPCon even as it comes with IP-related hurdles, he said. However, in the protected US environment, PERC does work today, he added. 

Europe is already betting on next-generation technologies like heterojunction (HJT) and back contact (BC), while the leaders in China already produce commercial modules with top efficiencies exceeding 24%, based on BC, pointing to TaiyangNews’ August 2025 TOP SOLAR MODULES Listing (see TOP SOLAR MODULES Listing – August 2025). 

If the US wants to be competitive, it needs to catch up. He called on US manufacturers to broaden their solar cell technology base and embrace BC design, while emphasizing BC’s suitability for tandem architectures – the likely next stage of the market – and urging early investment. 

He also singled out the hottest R&D topics in PV these days. This includes direct wafers, edge passivation, copper metallization, bifacial BC technology, conductive adhesives, and laser module production. 

Following RCT’s cost comparisons and ISC Konstanz’s overview on technologies, 3 equipment and material suppliers in the cell and module segment provided details on the latest trends in these segments. 

Push for Advanced Cell Equipment 

Dr. Kamel Ounadjela, General Manager of International Business Unit at LAPLACE Renewable Energy Technology, presented the company’s latest n-type solar cell equipment to US manufacturers, highlighting its proprietary TOPCon+ and XBC tools with efficiencies surpassing 25%. LAPLACE has been a pioneer in TOPCon and BC cell production equipment from China, delivering over 500 GW of capacity, he said. Ounadjela underscored LAPLACE’s robust intellectual property portfolio, designed to reassure American firms wary of investing in TOPCon technology due to ongoing patent concerns.

Ounadjela said the firm’s proprietary TOPCon process flow and LPCVD with ex-situ doping technology enable customers to produce and market compliant TOPCon products in both the US and European markets. LAPLACE bets on LPCVD, saying it improved tool efficiency with its GEN 5 tools now able to process 2,880 wafers per tube. He believes that next-gen TOPCon, so-called TOPCon+, will be able to compete with XBC as top efficiencies are closer and complexity lower (for a recording of LAPLACE’s in-depth presentation at the TaiyangNews Solar Cell Production Equipment Conference, click here). 

Toward a Silver-Free Solar Future 

Metallization is key to the industrialization of higher-efficiency solar cells, emphasized Dr. QJ Guo, CTO of Solamet Electronic Material from China, which acquired the metallization business of US-based DuPont, a pioneer in that field that launched its first conductive paste product in 1983. In his overview titled Cost Reduction and Performance Optimization for the Key Consumable of Solar Cell Production, he showed that silver consumption has nearly doubled with high-efficiency cell technologies. Technologies such as n-TOPCon, XBC, and HJT drive up silver paste demand compared to p-PERC, making cost control crucial. 

He outlined Solamet’s 3 metallization pathways for the purpose: fine-line printing to reduce silver laydown while boosting efficiency, low-silver Ag-Ni/Ag@Cu pastes that reduce silver content by up to 90% without impacting efficiency, and pure copper metallization currently under validation on the way to a ‘silver-free’ future. Guo emphasized that metallization innovation is central to balancing efficiency, cost, and sustainable growth in the global PV industry. 

FEOC-Free Solar Module Production Equipment for the US 

Kirkland Requejo, Commercial Manager Americas Solar at Mondragon Assembly, urged US buyers to carefully scrutinize equipment purchases and contracts with specified foreign entities. He warned against agreements that grant unrestricted rights over operations, maintenance, or repairs, or that withhold key technical data needed for independent manufacturing. Mondragon is a European leader in automation from Spain, which also operates a solar equipment unit that installed its first PV equipment with a customer as early as 2001 and delivered the first turnkey module line just 3 years later. It launched its US subsidiary in 2021. A key focus area today involves production lines beyond mainstream applications, like BIPV, Agri-PV, VIPV. 

Requejo assured attendees that all of the company’s equipment, intellectual property, services, and contracts are free from Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) restrictions – enabling customers to qualify for the US 45X tax credit. 

One of the main highlights of the Solar – Made in the USA 2025 summit was the convergence of most of the relevant companies that are producing or building silicon, ingot, wafer, cell, and module lines in the US. Top leadership from Talon PV, ES Foundry, SEG Solar, Suniva, Heliene, RCT Solutions, and Hemlock Semiconductor took to the stage to discuss and share strategies for solar manufacturing in the county. 

The latter half of the summit focused on quality, reliability, and system-level strategies in a fast-evolving policy and market landscape, managed by EUPD Research.