PVTIME – Heliene Solar, a US based company that produces high quality solar photovoltaic modules for various project, has announced the suspension of its plans to build a solar cell manufacturing facility in Minnesota, USA.
The company will not lease the previously announced solar cell plant in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, which is a joint venture with India’s Premier Energies. The company will await Trump’s decision on the IRA, the landmark infrastructure bill championed by President Biden that has pumped billions of dollars into the US economy, before ordering the necessary equipment for the plant. Despite bipartisan support, certain provisions of the IRA are likely to be scrapped, although many experts believe its core framework will remain intact.
Martin Pochtaruk, CEO of Heliene, explains that the 45X investment tax credit (ITC) is an important factor in investing in the United States. Until the new administration’s views on this policy are finalised, it would be imprudent to make a large investment in Heliene’s solar cell manufacturing joint venture with Premier Energies.
The total investment in Heliene’s Mountain Iron, Minnesota plant is $200 million, with $130 million in capital expenditures and a further $70 million in working capital. If built, Heliene plans to produce 1GW of N-type cells annually to meet Heliene’s and Premier’s US cell requirements.
The Minnesota solar cell plant is the second production facility to come online in the US, following Suniva’s new production line in Georgia. In early 2024, Heliene announced the signing of a three-year purchase agreement to produce the first batch of Made in the USA PV modules to qualify for the IRA domestic tax credit. The first modules will be shipped by the end of 2024, marking a milestone for US solar manufacturing.
While Heliene waits to lease space and order equipment for the PV cell plant, the company’s expansion is on schedule. In addition, Heliene is spending about $50 million on a new module production line in Rogers, Minnesota, which it hopes will be operational by the last week of April or the first week of May 2025.Heliene already has two module production lines in Mountain Iron, near Duluth, and is one of the active players in the field in the United States.
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