Singapore-based solar manufacturer Maxeon Solar Technologies, Ltd, plans to convert its two solar module production facilities in Mexico to manufacture shingled modules for the U.S. and other markets.
The two Mexican factories are located in Ensenada and Mexicali, which are both in the state of Baja California close to the U.S. border. The Mexicali facility will serve the U.S. market exclusively.
“The two facilities should reach a capacity of around 2.6 GW,” Maxeon Chief Revenue Officer Mark Babcock told pv magazine during the Intersolar event in Munich, Germany. He said the facility in Ensenada is currently being ramped up to 800 MW and the one in Mexicali should reach 1.8 GW.
Both facilities will manufacture only products based on the company’s mono PERC shingled technology.
Production should start again at the two facilities in late in the first quarter of 2022.
“We have committed deliveries in early Q2,” he said. “We also could sell these products in non-U.S. markets, but right now it’s more profitable shipping them there.”
The solar cells for the new production will be provided by Maxeon’s 1.8 GW manufacturing facility in Malaysia, which will produce uniquely for the Mexican facilities. Babcock said he was not concerned about a possible investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce into solar cells and modules that are imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand.
“We have been in Malaysia for years and it is not to get around anything,” he said. “That facility started many years ago.”
Headwinds
Modules produced at the two facilities will be sold as SunPower-branded rooftop products to SunPower itself and Maxeon-branded modules for the utility-scale segment.
“We saw headwinds for Chinese production and we feel very strongly that our manufacturing base in China will serve the rest of the world,” Babcock said. “Given the trade restrictions with the United States, the only way to bring our products to the U.S. market was to use our Mexican factories, which was great, as the facilities have been in operation for many years.”
Maxeon is also examining the possibility of expanding its production capacity for the U.S. market by opening a new factory there, although no location has been identified to date. “We made that public in our latest earnings call,” he stated. “The final decision will depend to some degree on the measures that the U.S. Congress may introduce to support solar manufacturing.”
Finding the rights partners to build the rest of the supply chain will be crucial.
“It is not only about the cells, you need the glass, the aluminum and the backsheets and without this ecosystem it will be impossible,” he said.
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Look into a manufacturing site in the sandhills around Monahans, Texas. The sand is high-grade quartz and there is an overabundance of cheap natural gas there to fire glass/semiconductor substrate foundries as well as a willing workforce to operate manufacturing, packaging, and shipping.