The US solar market is undergoing a transformative period, driven by increasing demand and trade complexities. Many companies are expanding their manufacturing footprints to navigate the Section 201 tariffs and the reimposition and extension of the Antidumping and Countervailing Duties (AD/CVD) to imports from the 4 Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
EliTe Solar, previously known as ET Solar, has found a strategic location in Egypt. In an exclusive interview with TaiyangNews, EliTe Solar’s CEO, Arndt Lutz, and General Manager, Alex Chen, gave a brief overview of the company’s strategy behind selecting Egypt as its manufacturing hub and how the location would help its penetration into the US market in the backdrop of the RE+ 2024 event. Here is a summary of the interview.
TaiyangNews: EliTe Solar came up with something very interesting this week, announcing its plans to set up a cell factory in Egypt. This move is probably also aimed at supplying products to the US. Can you give us some updates on that?
Arndt E. Lutz: The exciting news about Egypt is that we will be manufacturing up to 8 GW of solar cells and panels there. Egypt is a strategic location for EliTe Solar given its proximity to the European and African solar photovoltaic (PV) markets. It also enables us to ship to the United States because it's not affected by Section 201 tariffs or the Antidumping or Countervailing Duties (AD/CVD). We think it’s an ideal location for us.
We are starting with a 2 GW cell factory in Egypt, located in the Suez Canal Economic Development area where many others are also setting up different types of businesses. Egypt has a manufacturing-friendly environment, which will allow us to serve many different markets from our planned factories and facilities.
TaiyangNews: Egypt is pretty new, but you’ve been around in solar for a while. What other capacities are you operating? Can you provide an overview of your entire business strategy, Alex?
Alex Chen: EliTe Solar is headquartered in Singapore. We are a fully integrated global PV manufacturer and supplier with our own production facilities, starting from ingots and wafers to cells and modules, all outside of China. Currently, EliTe has about 3 GW of ingot and wafer manufacturing facility in Vietnam. For each of cells and modules, we have 2 GW of capacity in Indonesia, 1 GW in Vietnam, and 1 GW in Cambodia. We plan to move our capacity from Vietnam to Indonesia by the end of this year, taking our cell and module capacity to over 3 GW in Indonesia.
TaiyangNews: You mentioned all these different facilities, but RE+ is a US show focused on the US market with its own set of rules. As a decades-old company, what are EliTe Solar’s plans for the US?
Arndt E. Lutz: The US market is the most important market for EliTe Solar, and we have been in this market since 2007. We have delivered over 10 GW in the US so far. Over the years, our annual sales into the US have averaged over 1 GW, and closer to 2 GW this year. The goal is to provide safety and security to our US customers by producing our products in countries that are not affected by duties, tariffs, or other trade restrictions. Maybe Alex can talk a bit more about our excellence in terms of the service that we provide to US customers; it’s really what distinguishes our team here in the US.
Alex Chen: We have a local team based in California since 2007. We also have an office to provide turnkey services from pre-sales up to aftersales service, including product and performance warranty obligations. We rebranded ourselves from ET to EliTe to reflect the elite service we want to provide our customers. Having had a presence in the US market for 17 years, we now plan to set up a factory in the US, specifically for cell production.
TaiyangNews: Can you give us more details on your upcoming factory in the US? Or is it still a secret?
Alex Chen: We haven't announced it yet, but we are doing a lot of due diligence and pre-construction work internally. Maybe Arndt can share more information about the US factory.
Arndt E. Lutz: We are working with leading, established engineering firms and law firms that are helping us evaluate the best location to set up a cell manufacturing facility. Currently, we have shortlisted 2 or 3 states. Arizona and Georgia seem to be 2 very favorable states; there are other states with potential as well.
We believe cell manufacturing is where the real value is for the US market, which is the reason why we are focusing on it. We see a lot of capacity building going on in terms of module assembly, which in our view is not of great value. We think it is important to make solar cells in the United States, and modules can be assembled in any of the existing facilities using the EliTe Solar Bill of Materials (BoM). We think manufacturing cells in the US is going to be very advantageous for our US customers.
In the meantime, we have Indonesia and Egypt, which are trade-compliant manufacturing markets. Hopefully, the US production will follow by early 2026. That's our goal.
TaiyangNews: That’s all great news for US customers. Thank you for the interview.
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