Enel prepares to start construction of the largest photovoltaic panel factory in the United States. Basically it is the largest because it is the first: the planned investment is over one billion dollars and the initiative is able to employ 1,500 people. The novelty of these days is the choice of the place where to build the plant: after months of research and the selection of a short list, the federal state in which to set up the new factory has been identified.
The factory will be built in Tusla, Oklahoma
The successful candidate is Oklahoma and specifically an area near the city of Tusla. “We have identified Oklahoma as the leading candidate and are excited about the possibility of expanding our presence in the state,” said Giovanni Bertolino, head of Enel 3Sun’s US photovoltaic production division, in a statement. The Italian electricity group has a consolidated presence over the years in North America; in Oklahoma has a $3 billion portfolio of wind projects and an office in Oklahoma City. The choice of the area at this point should speed up the time to start setting up the new factory, where construction works had been announced by the first half of 2023, with the aim of putting the panels into production in 2024. These are particular panels, the result of the innovation developed by Enel at the plant being upgraded in Catania: not only are they double-sided, therefore able to capture sunlight even on surfaces not directly exposed to the rays, but the new products will feature materials capable of increasing the ability to absorb light.
With the new technology the panel is more efficient
Tandem technology aims at the production of a new generation of solar cells made up of different materials: a “bottom” cell which will always adopt HJT technology on silicon wafers, while a “top” cell will be made up of perovskite, considered by many of the future in solar technologies. It is a hybrid organic-inorganic material which, when added to the silicon cell, allows a broader range of wavelengths of light in the solar spectrum to be transformed into current (in particular, perovskite also allows blue light to be converted, which is instead out of reach of silicon cells).
The use of Tandem technology, which should become fully operational in the 3Sun Gigafactory in Catania (but in fact also in the USA) in 2025, promises to increase the efficiency of the photovoltaic panel by more than 30% (compared to around 20% at present), with the aim of guaranteeing a life span of at least 35 years.
The opportunity for subsidies from the Inflation reduction act
The opportunity of the investment, which follows in the footsteps of the project already under development in Catania (with the aim of bringing the annual capacity from 200 megawatts to 3 gigawatts but the development of a second factory in Italy is also being evaluated), is very greedy because of the tax incentives that the US government has implemented with the Inflation Reduction Act by allocating over 300 billion dollars in subsidies to promote the development of clean energy and incentivize the US production of components such as batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels. The importance of having a consolidated presence in that country these days shouldn’t be underestimated: only those who produce or relocate production to the US can access the incentives. Not only that: it can export green products, panels such as electric cars, to the US without being penalized by entry barriers, such as duties.