| Tuesday, February 11, 2025 | 8:00 AM EST

Operational capacity for the manufacture of solar modules in the United States has reached 51.7 gigawatts (GW) as of February, enough to cover nearly all domestic demand this year, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has reported.

That represents a growth of over 600 percent from seven GW before federal manufacturing tax credits, according to the trade association’s Solar & Storage Supply Chain Dashboard.

“Reaching 50 GW of domestic solar manufacturing capacity is a testament to what we can achieve with smart, business-friendly public policies in place”, SEIA president and chief executive Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement. “The U.S. is now the third largest module producer in the world because of these policy actions.

“This milestone not only marks progress for the solar industry but reinforces the essential role energy policies play in building up the domestic manufacturing industry that American workers and their families rely on”.

“Federal policies that directly support domestic manufacturing (Section 45X tax credit, Section 48C tax credit), solar deployment incentives (ITC and PTC), and policies that encourage demand for domestic products (domestic content adder credit) have worked in tandem to lead to a surge in U.S. solar and energy storage manufacturing investments”, SEIA said in an update to the online dashboard. “These incentives help make American solar and storage manufacturing more competitive in the global market”.

Solar parts manufacturers in the country have announced $40.2 billion of investments since these policies took effect 2022. Projects put into operation total $8.7 billion, while $16,2 billion are under construction, according to SEIA.

SEIA expects these investments to provide over 44,000 manufacturing jobs. By 2033 the U.S.’ solar manufacturing workforce is expected to be 100,000 workers strong.

Seventy-three new solar and storage manufacturing plants have started service thanks to federal manufacturing incentives, with 48 under construction. Forty-three states and Puerto Rico now have solar manufacturing facilities, according to SEIA.

“279 manufacturing facilities have opened or [are] planning to open in 23 states with Republican governors and 200 manufacturing facilities have opened or are planning to open in 20 states with Democrat governors”, it noted.

“263 manufacturing facilities have opened or [are] planning to open in 122 congressional districts with Republican representatives and 170 have opened or are planning to open in 90 congressional districts with Democrat representatives”.

In the module sector, besides the 51.7 GW operational, a further 17.5 GW of capacity is under construction. For cells, two GW are operational and 11.8 GW are under construction. 3.3 GW are under construction each for wafers and ingots; the first facilities are expected to come online by the end of 2025. For polysilicon, 25 GW - based on the NREL assumption of 2 g/W - are operational, according to SEIA.

In the mounting systems sector, 188 facilities are operational and five are under construction.

In the power electronics and grid technologies sector, responsible for producing parts needed in the conversion of the direct current produced by solar modules to alternating current used in distribution and most transmission lines, there are 66 facilities operational and seven under construction.

In the storage sector, battery materials manufacturing has 1.9 GW hours of operational capacity and 19 GWh under construction (assuming 165 wh/kg), battery cells manufacturing has 12.3 GWh operational and 57 GWh under construction, while battery packs manufacturing has 54.2 GWh operational and 28.5 GWh under construction.

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