A contract solar panel assembly plant will soon open in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, supplying the large-scale market on the island and hopefully the larger market on the U.S. mainland.
Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Credit: US Corps of Engineers
Solx plans to open its 1.2 GW panel manufacturing facility in April 2025 on a former Hewlett Packard inkjet printer manufacturing base. The site should support 250 new jobs, says CEO James Holmes.
“There are not that many facilities that are really purpose-built on the island. Many of ours [solar panel manufacturing] colleagues are building greenfield projects with new buildings and that entails many risks,” he said. “We have found a building that is ready to move in and, for example, we have been committed to the community of Aguadilla for twenty years, and that feels very good to us.”
Solx has signed a 10-year lease with possible extensions on the 150,000 ft2 building on HP’s 65-acre campus. The company is investing $20 million in the factory to prepare it for panel production.
Establishing a panel manufacturer in Puerto Rico was always the goal for Solx. Holmes, who previously led Sunnova’s non-residential operations and had experience with the company’s increased solar efforts in Puerto Rico, joined the Solx team to bring real-world solar expertise for the lofty goals of the founders.
The company announced last year it would establish a 6 GW panel factory on the island. Now that a building has been leased, the company has focused on a more achievable goal: supplying utility-scale projects on the island with locally assembled panels.
“Our primary focus is on the utility market, but we can reconfigure our assembly lines to produce residential modules as well,” Holmes said. “1.2 GW is the right size to serve the Puerto Rican market and as a gateway to the greater U.S. region.”
Holmes said there will be no Solx brand panels on the market. Solx will operate as an OEM, making panels for Tier 1 companies with supply chain traceability.
Puerto Rican companies don’t pay federal income taxes, but Holmes said Solx qualifies for the tax breaks offered in the Inflation Reduction Act, such as the 45x domestic production credit. Working with a Puerto Rican company comes with other cost benefits, such as solar panel buyers on the island not having to pay Jones Act-related fees. The Jones Act requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried on American-made ships and crewed by Americans. Puerto Rican solar projects would benefit from purchasing Solx-made panels and not having to pay additional shipping costs to use other domestic panels from the mainland.
“We’re really well positioned in Puerto Rico to be a dominant supplier, from a price perspective in that market,” Holmes said.
Much attention has been paid to Puerto Rico’s residential solar and storage market, but large-scale projects have recently gained momentum of their own. The Dept. Loan Programs Office of Energy is financing $861 million from a portfolio of 200 MW of solar and 1,140 MWh of storage in the southeastern part of the island. That’s just one of many projects Holmes said Solx is ready to deliver. And Solx does this with local staff at a competitive price.
“We are building more than 250 jobs in Aguadilla and domestic capacity,” Holmes said. “Puerto Rico has a highly skilled and developed labor market, built on the back of the pharmaceutical and defense industries. We are going to respond to that. I believe we will operate this facility with the same capacity factor as our counterparts in China. We are going to prove that.”
Francisco Berrios Portela, Puerto Rico’s chief energy officer, agrees that Puerto Rico is becoming a dominant force in the solar industry.
“Renewable energy in Puerto Rico is making rapid progress on multiple fronts. In recent years, the rooftop solar market has experienced impressive growth, averaging more than 3,000 installations per month. In addition, a robust pipeline is already in place to develop approximately 1,000 MW of utility-scale renewable energy projects,” he said. “The rapid adoption of renewable energy on the island, combined with growing technical expertise, logistical advantages and favorable incentive structures, creates substantial opportunities. A key example of this momentum is the recent announcement of the Solx solar panel factory, which will serve the island’s growing local market and position Puerto Rico as a major hub for the export of U.S.-manufactured solar panels.