In Part 2 of the special Austin-debrief series of articles this week in pv magazine, I look today at the forecasted c-Si cell production by quarter in the United States through the end of 2027 and outline the most important metric to track for the U.S. solar cell industry now – the building of high-quality, performance-leading factories.
Part1 addressed domestic U.S. module production forecasting, capturing themes covered at the recent Solar Manufacturing USA 2026 event in Austin, Texas on 22-23 September.
The analysis outlined in this article is also adapted from the new Solar Manufacturing USA Quarterly report.
Like most third-party commentary related to new c-Si module activity in the United States recently, there has been a preoccupation with adding up c-Si cell capacity announcements.
However, there has also been way too much focus on the initial technology selection for the handful of c-Si cell fabs that have come to fruition in the United Staes in the past few years.
This article explains why capacity-counting and an over-emphasis on technology selection for c-Si cell fabs in the United States today is missing the key issue – building out high-quality cell factories that should ultimately form the basis of a long-term and sustainable silicon-based ecosystem.
Additionally, I show the forecasted c-Si cell production by quarter in the United States to the end of Q4 2027, taken from data included in the new Solar Manufacturing USA Quarterly report, with upside and downside scenarios.
The United States is at the very start of a new wave of building c-Si cell factories, having watched from the sidelines as annual production volumes from Chinese companies routinely exceeded 500 GW annually since 2020.
Source link
