Recently, Japanese cell and module manufacturer Toyo Solar, a subsidiary of Vsun Solar, has announced plans to set up a 2GW module manufacturing facility in the US to mainly produce TOPCon modules. The new facility plans to be in production in 2025.
This plan has been disclosed in detail in the company’s half-year results. It noted that in H1 of 2024, the company had provided 985MW of solar cells to the US market and expects to deepen its relationship with these customers with its new manufacturing facility.
Toyo Solar plans to invest $100 million into the new factory. According to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Toyo Solar is expected to receive tax credit of $12 per square meter of silicon wafer, alongside $0.04/W of cells and $0.07/W of modules. The company expects to recoup most of its investment within 12 months of the project’s commissioning. Toyo Solar expects to produce 1.4GW of modules within the first year of the new factory’s production, and gradually increase to an annual production capacity of 2GW. This output is expected to bring around $84 million in tax credits to the company.
Toyo Solar also plans to start producing cells in the US in H1 of 2026 and has announced plans to build a silicon wafer slicing facility in the US.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Energy announced $71 million in financing for silicon and thin-film manufacturing initiatives. Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger made the decision to close German factories and open a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.
However, just last week, Meyer Burger announced the cancellation of its proposed cell manufacturing plant project in Colorado as the facility had become “no longer financially viable”. This news has a certain impact on the solar manufacturing industry in the US.
But it does not seem to have great effect on Toyo Solar’s decision. This investment announcement was released against the backdrop of significant performance improvement in H1 of the year for the company. According to the company’s half-year results, its net income jumped from a loss of $1.9 million in H1 of 2023 to a gain of $19.6 million in H1 of 2024. At the same time, the company’s gross margin reached 19.3%, and income from its operations soared from a loss of US$1.7 million to US$22.5 million from one six-month period to the next.
In February of this year, Vsun Solar signed a long-term polysilicon supply agreement with South Korean polysilicon producer OCI. In April, the company launched a 4GW silicon wafer plant in Vietnam.
For company like Toyo Solar that wishes to involve itself in the US market, the road ahead is not smooth sailing. Earlier this year, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee called on the Department of Commerce (DOC) to impose tariffs on products from Southeast Asian countries beyond China, due to concerns that Chinese companies are dumping products in neighboring countries and evading US China trade restrictions. According to the committee’s statistics, the import of solar cells from Vietnam to the US increased by 39% between April and August this year. The implementation of new tariffs may have a significant impact on companies such as Vsun Solar and Toyo Solar, which are active in Vietnam.
