- Waaree Energies is expanding its manufacturing footprint to the US, inspired by the IRA
- It plans to establish 5 GW module capacity in Houston, and add integrated cell capacity as well
- SB Energy will procure multi-GW module capacity annually from Waaree’s US fab for 5 years
Waaree Energies of India will invest up to $1 billion to build one of the largest solar module factories in the US with 5 GW of annual capacity, along with an integrated cell production facility. Beckoned by attractive incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it has picked Houston, Texas for the group’s maiden US PV manufacturing fab.
According to the company, by December 2024, it will bring online 3 GW of module production capacity on site in the town of Brookshire. It will be expanded up to 5 GW by 2027. Its plans also include adding an integrated US-made cell production facility by 2025. At full capacity, the new facility will create more than 1,500 total jobs.
Waaree’s US production plans are pinned by a multi-GW solar module offtake agreement with SoftBank Group’s SB Energy for a period of 5 years from the time the module factory is online.
Board Member of Waaree Solar Americas, Sunil Rathi said, “Most major components used in the manufacturing of these solar modules will be sourced domestically, enabled in part due to the Inflation Reduction Act.”
According to the US Treasury Department’s latest IRA guidance, $0.07/W credit limit will be available for solar modules under the IRA (see US Guidance On Clean Energy Manufacturing Credits).
Waaree touts a total of 12 GW solar module manufacturing capacity in India. One of the winners of the Indian government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme tranche-II for 3 GW out of its planned wafer+cell+module capacity, Waaree raised INR 10 billion funding in August 2023 (see ValueQuest Leads Funding For Indian Module Maker).
Waaree’s US manufacturing sojourn follows its Indian peers Rayzon Solar, Vikram Solar and Navitas Solar that have announced US module production starting with 500 MW, 2 GW and 1.2 GW annual capacity, respectively. Navitas aims to scale up its US capacity to 10 GW annually (see Indian Module Maker Expanding To The US).
