Solar energy production in the US generates more than just electricity

As government incentives continue to accelerate investment, new manufacturing plants are driving community renaissance, economic development and job growth. That was the message from panelists during a session at the recent RE+ event, North America’s largest renewable energy trade show, held September 9-12 in Anaheim, California.

For U.S. economic policy to succeed, the country’s productive capacity must expand—and that’s even more apparent in the context of U.S. energy goals, speakers said. There simply can’t be energy independence without U.S. production of the necessary infrastructure to create the energy grid of the future. But as federal and state incentives have accelerated the development of new manufacturing, the far-reaching effects beyond increased energy production have accelerated as well.

The September 11 discussion at the RE+ conference included Will Cabana, vice president of sales at PV Hardware USA (PVH US); Andy Meserve, vice president of business development at Eos Energy Enterprises; and Mark Hagedorn, vice president of manufacturing services at Clean Energy Associates. POWER is a media partner of the event.

“The benefits of investing in U.S. manufacturing have become increasingly clear to many of our businesses. Supply chain risk has a positive impact on our communities. Local content is more of a buzzword, it’s a strategic advantage for us,” Cabana said. “I’m particularly proud of my own company, PV Hardware. We recently opened a 12-gigawatt factory in Houston, Texas. We’ve made a huge commitment to the community there.”

Impact on the community

The overwhelming consensus among panelists was that the impact the local community has had on the business and the individual lives of its employees has been one of the most noticeable and dramatic outcomes of the new manufacturing facilities. Eos Energy Enterprises, a manufacturer of zinc batteries, opened its first manufacturing facility in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, in 2019. In August 2023, the company began commercial production of its Eos Z3 batteries at a facility outside Pittsburgh.

“Everyone at Eos has a stake in the company, so all of our employees are owners in the company and they all have a reason to help the company grow,” Meserve said. “We’ve had several factory workers tell us they were the first in their family to buy a home and they were able to do so because of their employment. The mayor of Turtle Creek told us they’ve been waiting for a company like Eos to come to their town for 40 years.”

According to Meserve, the economic impact trickles down throughout the community and region. Workers find upward mobility, developing new skills and moving up through the ranks of Eos, he said. And the new income security of those workers fuels economic development as restaurant businesses grow, new retailers open and other new businesses emerge to support the manufacturing plant.

“Economic activity is really coming back, and if we do what we need to do, we’ll start to see suppliers of our raw materials colocating in this area,” Meserve said. “There’ll be even more jobs. It’s amazing how that’s starting to ripple out and have an effect that the city really needs.”

Creating jobs

Panelists said that while the industry is focused on decarbonization, clean energy and climate change, what matters most to most people is jobs, jobs, jobs.

“Houston has traditionally been one of the largest oil and gas cities in the country. And now they’re seeing renewable energy there,” Cabana said. “We bought a facility there to make solar trackers on an industrial scale. The employment part has been huge. The community supports our plant. We have a forklift operator whose cousin and brother also work at the plant. So it really feels like a family in the office.”

“If you talk to a regular person involved in one of these national operations in the industry, what they really want to talk about is work,” Hagedorn said. “That really means you’re really making a profound impact in the community when you locate in it.”

Since 2008, Clean Energy Associates has been inspecting solar module and battery cell manufacturing facilities around the world to ensure buyers get the best possible product. In cities in the United States and elsewhere, the jobs generated by a new manufacturing facility can increase economic activity in an area by 10 to 50 times, Hagedorn said.

“That kind of big impact can really transform a community,” he continued. “So cities are really growing around factories. And it’s interesting to see the faces of everyday workers. They’re excited to go to work. They’re involved in something new, and they’re very proud to support their families with manufacturing in the U.S..”

Economic incentives

According to the panelists, the U.S. government’s economic incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are helping to spur new interest in American manufacturing, and are also allowing debt providers to feel more comfortable investing in these much-needed new facilities. However, while federal incentives have helped, the panelists agreed that local incentives through state and regional governments are generating interest in those communities where the need and opportunity are greatest.

“The IRA really allowed lenders to basically lend money very comfortably for development,” Meserve said. “And it was very exciting to see the local government help us get the community support and the approvals and the community involvement that we needed to be successful.”

Finally, panelists confirmed that the overarching goal of new manufacturing—beyond new generation electricity—is to reinforce and perpetuate supply chain challenges that have become abundantly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supply chain security and mitigating risks from cyberattacks and other threats have become major concerns as manufacturing expands in the United States.

“When we start talking about building factories, we’re really talking about building more than one factory,” Hagedorn said. “If we’re building a solar module factory, we’re also talking about a glass factory, we need framing and aluminum extrusion, and so on. There’s been some change in that challenge, and you’re starting to see some people developing some local manufacturing and some supply chain ecosystems in North America.”

According to Meserve, there is still much work to be done to address supply chain threats.

“We’ll have better logistics here, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “We’re still shipping stuff from different places. So when our factory gets the support it needs for our components from nearby factories, that’s when we’ll really be successful.”

—This post was added by Photovoltaic equipment communications team.