Top 5 American solar panel manufacturers in 2023

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August 8, 2023 at 6:10 pm

1. First Solar
Currently the largest manufacturer of solar modules in the United States, First Solar mostly makes CdTe thin-film products aimed at the utility-scale sector. FirstSolar is famous for its commitment to recycling its old products and for booking orders of well over ten times its annual production capacity.

First Solar is working on expanding its already large facilities in Ohio and is also building a new plant in Alabama. The company also said it plans to work with SunPower on a new tandem solar panel for homes that could reach the market by 2024. The “tandem”, in this case, refers to a layer of specially-tuned CdTe thin film placed on top of traditional crystalline silicon solar cells.

2. Qcells
Qcells (formerly Hanwha Q CELLS), which was founded in 1999, is a subsidiary of South Korea-based Hanwha Solutions with a regional headquarters office in Irvine, California. It currently supplies more residential solar panels in the U.S. than any other company.

The Tier 1 company currently operates a 1.7 gigawatt (GW) solar panel manufacturing plant in Dalton, Georgia, that began production in February 2019. In 2022 and 2023, the company announced an investment of $2.5 billion in plans to expand its solar business in a multitude of ways. The end goal of that expansion is to create a fully domestic solar supply chain, from raw poly-silicon production to the manufacturing of solar silicon wafers, solar cells, and finally, modules.

3. Silfab Solar
Silfab Solar is a privately-held solar company based in Ontario, but the company actually has more employees in the United States. In the U.S., the company manufactures solar panels at two facilities in Washington with a combined manufacturing capacity of 800 megawatts (MW).

In 2023, Silfab introduced its latest Elite series solar panel, which uses an innovative conductive backsheet to channel power from the solar cells, rather than wire busbars that can reduce power output. The company also announced plans to begin manufacturing its own solar cells in a new facility it plans to build in South Carolina.

4. Jinko Solar
In response to 2018 tariffs filed under President Trump, Shanghai-based Jinko Solar opened a 400-MW solar panel manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2019. The Florida plant is important to serve the U.S. market but represents a small portion of the company’s 70+ GW worldwide manufacturing capacity.

Jinko has yet to announce plans to expand its manufacturing base in the United States. Still, the company may be inspired to do so in the near future, as its Chinese rival LONGi has announced plans to build a 5 GW solar module factory in Ohio.

5. Mission Solar
Mission Solar has been manufacturing solar panels in San Antonio, Texas, since 2014. A subsidiary of a Korean company called OCI, Mission now assembles 300 MW of solar panels each year. By its 10-year anniversary in 2024, it plans to have expanded to 1 GW of annual manufacturing capacity in Texas.