Despite challenges from the Trump administration, U.S. solar manufacturing is on the rise, driven by tax incentives and a need for domestic supply chains. Major companies like First Solar and Hanwha Qcells are expanding, while newer firms such as T1 Energy are emerging. With collaborations like the one between T1 and Corning, U.S. solar manufacturing is aiming for greater self-sufficiency, particularly in states like Texas. Nonetheless, the U.S. still faces hurdles to compete with China, which leads global solar production.
Companies that make solar power components in the United States are still positioned to benefit from tax policy and tariffs, despite the Trump administration’s aversion to renewable energy. Some big manufacturers, such as First Solar and Hanwha Qcells, are expanding, while smaller players also see opportunities. Among the new names is T1 Energy, a solar company based in Austin, Texas, which said this month that it was forming a partnership with Corning Inc. of New York to set up a supply chain in which nearly all components would be produced in this country. T1 is part of a cluster of businesses that are helping to make Texas a leader in solar manufacturing. “No country ever wants to be totally dependent on imported energy,” said Russell Gold, an executive vice president of communications for T1 and a former journalist reporting on energy for publications including Texas Monthly and The Wall Street Journal. “When you’re talking about solar manufacturing, we’re building the oil and gas fields of the future.”
The emergence of T1, which until recently was called Freyr Battery, is part of a broader trend of many companies aiming to meet the growing demand for solar power while also navigating complex tax credits and tariffs. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July, did little to change tax credits for manufacturers, maintaining a 2030 phaseout for manufacturing tax credits. This was in contrast to the bill’s rapid phaseout of other clean energy credits. One caveat is that the bill contains restrictions on using components that come from “prohibited foreign entities,” which is mainly aimed at stopping credits from going to China. The Trump administration has not yet released guidance on how it will interpret this part of the bill, which leaves uncertainty for projects that rely on the manufacturing credits.
On top of recent legislation, the Trump administration’s ever-changing tariffs provide additional reasons for companies to want to develop U.S.-based supply chains. But the United States has a long way to go to become a serious competitor in solar manufacturing. China dominates global production of solar panels and the major components that they’re built with. Chinese companies have many of the latest technologies and economies of scale, making it difficult for anyone else to compete. The world’s six largest solar panel manufacturers, ranked by gigawatts of annual production, are based in China, according to BloombergNEF. The seventh is Canadian Solar, with headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario, and the eighth is First Solar, based in Tempe, Arizona.
Setting up a supply chain doesn’t happen quickly or easily, said Antoine Vagneur-Jones, head of trade and supply chains for the research firm BloombergNEF. He anticipates that many solar companies will face technical challenges as they try to secure supplies of polysilicon and other materials. “People are being rightly skeptical, given that this is something that’s quite new in the U.S.,” he said. The solar supply chain has several main operations, which often take place in separate plants, starting with the processing of polysilicon to turn it into a form that can be used on solar cells. Next is the manufacturing of solar cells, which are small squares with polysilicon across their surface. A manufacturer also needs suppliers for glass, racking, and electronic equipment. The final step is assembling the parts into a finished panel, something that Vagneur-Jones likens to putting together Ikea furniture. Vagneur-Jones thinks First Solar is
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