US firm begins solar module production in northern Vietnam

U.S. solar module manufacturer Thornova Solar says it has started production at volume in its Vietnam facility that will supply products to the United States.

The modern plant, with an annual capacity of about 1 gigawatts, is located at the Que Vo Industrial Park in Bac Ninh province bordering Hanoi.

Thornova Solar said in a release Wednesday that the company’s modules are meant for immediate deployment on utility-scale, commercial and residential projects in the U.S.

Thornova offers TOPCon modules and PERC modules, with power outputs ranging from 415Wp to 615Wp. The products come with 15- to 25-year product warranties and 30-year performance guarantees, the company said.

“We want to help our customers be successful and have designed our Vietnam facility specifically to meet their needs today and tomorrow,” said Thornova Solar CEO William Sheng.

The company got an investment certificate for the Vietnam plant this January, but it has not disclosed how much it has invested in the facility.

The released said that as a sustainability-focused company, Thornova has selected its suppliers for solar panel components carefully. It also said that the company follows the SEIA Solar Supply Chain Traceability Protocol, which is designed to identify the source of a product’s material inputs, and trace the movement of these inputs throughout the supply chain.

The company had announced late last December that the new factory would use fully automated production lines and that the products undergo several inspections, “including triple EL (electroluminescence) testing, VDE test, Triple IEC test, Ammonia test, Sandblast, UV test, and PID test.” These tests will ensure the quality and reliability of Thornova products, it said.

In mid-May 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden vetoed a Congress resolution that would have undone his two-year moratorium on tariffs for solar panels and modules imported to the U.S. from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia.

U.S. solar panel imports in the first quarter of 2023 totalled 850,157 tons, up from 672,863 tons in the fourth quarter of 2022, with Vietnam accounting for 30.4%, followed by Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia, ratings agency S&P Global said a few days after the Biden veto, citing statistics from New York-based global trade data company Panjiva Inc.

The four Southeast Asian countries accounted for 79.2% of U.S. solar module imports during this year’s first quarter.

Among the largest shippers to the U.S. in first quarter of this year was a Vietnam-based manufacturing affiliate of Arizona-based thin-film solar company First Solar Inc.

First Solar operates three production sites globally - in Ohio; Malaysia’s Kulim; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s southern economic hub.

The corporation has invested $830 million in two manufacturing facilities at the Dong Nam Industrial Park in HCMC's Cu Chi district.