Vietnamese solar manufacturer Boviet Solar said it has finished installing a third module production line, adding 1 gigawatt of annual module production capacity in Greenville, N.C., where it already operated 2 GW.
The total of 3 GW in capacity to assemble the company’s proprietary Gamma Series monofacial and Gamma Series bifacial solar panels will pair with 3 GW of solar cell capacity that the company is installing in the same location, the company said in a release.
In late August, Boviet announced it had completed exterior construction for the second phase of its cell manufacturing facility, which it said would start volume production next year.
Boviet’s news is sure to hearten solar-industry observers tracking a resurgence in the U.S. domestic manufacturing industry, which has made something of a comeback from severe retrenchment in the face of low-price Chinese imports.
All eyes are particularly focused on developments in domestic cell fabrication. While many manufacturers have brought back gigawatt-plus module-production plants, only a few, such as ES Foundry in South Carolina and Suniva in Georgia, are domestically producing cells.
Earlier-than-expected phaseouts of federal tax incentives for solar have further begged the question of whether announced plans for adding cell capacity, such as Qcells’ intention to include cell production in its intended fully vertically integrated plant in Carterville, Ga., remain on track for completion. Boviet’s announcements of progress to expand both cell and module production might be considered important data points in favor of domestic production.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in August estimated 2 GW of domestic cell production capacity is online, compared with 57.5 GW of module capacity. Another 19.3 GW of cell capacity is in the works, part of 34.1 GW of announced plans for capacity additions.
Founded in 2013 in Vietnam, Boviet projects that it will spend a total of $400 million on its Greenville production site, creating more than 1,300 high-skill local jobs once all production phases are online.
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