Perhaps capitalizing on the recognized technological prowess of “Silicon Valley,” an industrial area in eastern Germany dubbed itself “Solar Valley” in the early 2000s after several solar manufacturers employed thousands just off main road Sonnenallee (“Sun Avenue”). Two decades later, Solar Valley in Thalheim, Germany, has lost its desirability, with companies leaving the area just as quickly as they set up. Now, a new Solar Valley is forming in a surprising place — the largest oil and gas hub in the Western Hemisphere.
The United States has become an attractive place recently for solar manufacturing, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. But no state has seen more manufacturing activity than oil-rich Texas. Take your pick — Dallas, Houston or along the road in between — more inverter, mounting system and solar panel manufacturers are headed to the Lone Star State. Lured by favorable tax advantages and plenty of open space for huge factories, solar companies are taking a chance on Texas. But will they succeed?
Why Texas?
A red state with fossil fuel interests isn’t the first place one would think to find the new solar hotspot, but Texas offers businesses several good reasons to set up manufacturing bases within its borders, including sales tax exemptions for manufacturing equipment and no corporate or personal income tax. The state also offers solar manufacturers specifically an exemption from franchise taxes. Add a civilian workforce of more than 15 million that is among the youngest in the nation and Texas appears to be the best place to set up solar manufacturing operations.
According to Solar Power World data, the state boasts 10 solar panel manufacturers (four operating, six announced), three inverter manufacturers (two operating, one announced) and six mounting manufacturers (five operating, one announced). Houston will soon be the most concentrated area in the United States for solar panel manufacturing, with at least four companies expecting to begin panel assembly in the next year, employing nearly 3,000 people.
Sirius PV is one of those companies. The panel manufacturer, supported by Elin Energy in Turkey, is outfitting a 250,000-ft2 factory in Brookshire that will have a 2-GW annual capacity. Sirius ultimately wants three shifts of workers, but is finding the onboarding process more difficult than expected.
Solar panel manufacturing at the Sirius PV plant outside Houston. Credit: Sirius PV
“We are trying very hard to find the right people, but it’s not easy. It’s been a challenge in Texas, and we were not expecting this,” said Ercan Kalafat, Sirius PV CEO. “We can overcome the challenge because we have tools for that, but we were hoping it would be easier.”
Sirius brought in experienced workers from its Turkish factories to train new hires in Houston. Due to the lengthy education process, the company is operating one shift currently and expects its second shift to be fully trained by the end of Q2. Kalafat said the biggest obstacle is the lack of experience in solar manufacturing in the area. While Texas is well-versed in advanced technology manufacturing, even an automated solar panel assembly plant requires specific skills.
“I’m not saying solar manufacturing didn’t exist, but it was very limited [in the United States]. There is no ecosystem where you have people who know this job,” he said. “Can we adapt from other manufacturing? Yeah. But it’s a very specific job to be a stringer operator or a laminator operator. Once we are fully ramped up, this will be a 500-person operation. We have to take care of this now so we can have that many talented people in the future.”
Canadian Solar is building a 5-GW panel assembly factory in Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas. Thomas Koerner, corporate senior VP at Canadian Solar, said the company has found a strong labor pool in the area but acknowledges the benefit of having an established global manufacturing footprint. Like Sirius PV, Canadian Solar is leaning on employees from its existing factories to train the American workforce.
“We’re the most international-producing manufacturer, so we know how to make it work,” Koerner said. “We can send [new workers] to Thailand, train them there for two to eight weeks, and then bring them back and be the trainers [in the United States].”
Canadian Solar expects to employ 1,500 people at its 753,000-ft2 factory and posts new job openings online every day. The company has shipped its first American-assembled panels but will only function as the country’s largest silicon solar panel manufacturer if it fills every open position.
Community support
According to the 2023 Solar Jobs Census, solar manufacturing employment reached 33,473 jobs in 2022, representing 13% of total solar jobs in the United States. A survey of respondents revealed that 73% of manufacturing employers were finding it difficult to hire qualified workers — and that was before the IRA boom of announced manufacturers.
While much recent attention has been placed on developing job training for the installation sector, there are still thousands of workers needed in manufacturing. Community organizations across Texas have been assisting that effort.
Project Quest, a nonprofit that connects adults to in-demand, living-wage employment training, has served the San Antonio area since 1992, and its model has been adopted throughout the state and into surrounding areas. Francisco Martinez, Project Quest president and CEO, said the nonprofit doesn’t provide any training but instead acts as a bridge between local citizens and the workforce in need of laborers.
“Over the years, the definition has changed of which career tracks in which areas, but recently, there’s been a big push for advanced manufacturing, and our partnership with clean jobs has been growing,” he said.
Credit: Mission Solar Energy
Project Quest is working with OCI Solar Power to increase solar job training through St. Philip’s College in San Antonio. OCI and its companies, including panel manufacturer Mission Solar Energy, have committed $500,000 over three years to the college to support students going through the solar training program.
“We’re optimistic to develop and continue to grow that field,” Martinez said. “We’ve been in advanced manufacturing and other trades before, but nothing as unique as this solar opportunity.”
He said there’s often a struggle to get individuals to recognize careers in new fields because they weren’t exposed to those job opportunities when growing up.
“We try to make sure that those folks who may be a good fit for these programs have an entryway and access to those career training opportunities,” Martinez said. “Many folks may not know about solar jobs, so in partnership with OCI and St. Philip’s, we do our best in educating individuals about the career field. They’re pioneers in the sense that no one in their family has done this before. There isn’t that second-generation solar professional. We provide those support services to motivate them and encourage them to continue to persist.”
GAF Energy, which opened its 250-MW capacity solar shingle manufacturing facility a half-hour outside of Austin in late 2023, is training first-generation solar professionals in even more unique job skills. Timberline Solar shingles are one row of half-cut solar cells laminated onto TPO roofing material that are nailed to a roof when installed. GAF products include traditional solar manufacturing tasks, like stringing, laminating and flash-testing, but adding the roofing materials required extra training for new employees at the Georgetown plant.
GAF Energy’s solar shingle factory outside Austin, Texas.
“We’ve added a significantly higher amount of robotics and automation to what we do, since we have operations that just don’t exist in standard panel manufacturing,” said Ralph Robinett, senior VP of manufacturing and supply chain for GAF Energy. “There’s not a lot of solar-experienced people, and that was really heavy in our decision-making for why we’re located in Austin — just looking at similar industries that we can draw talent from and then supplement with our own knowledge.”
Robinett said GAF Energy has been focusing most of its recruiting efforts on military servicemembers transitioning back to civilian life at nearby Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood).
“The city has provided some incentives around job creation that help with development,” he said. “We do job fairs for transitioning military. We’re focusing on that scope, having people familiar with the rigors of a 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. workday, and a lot of background with maintenance and machinery operation.”
GAF Energy is adding shifts as more people are trained and is currently operating on a seven-day schedule with over 100 employees. The company first sent new hires to its original solar shingle factory in Silicon Valley for training, and now it has an experienced training team that comes to Texas to get new shifts running. Robinett said GAF Energy has no regrets setting up its second manufacturing plant in Texas.
“Georgetown has been a really welcoming community and a collaborative city government. We have conversations about how we’re going to work together to benefit everyone,” he said. “That collaboration is really strong in Texas.”
It’s a new era for both solar jobs in the United States and manufacturing career opportunities in Texas. Martinez with Project Quest said local communities are ready to lead the way.
“That’s where Quest comes in, with the opportunity to level the playing field and make sure the true population demographics of our community that have historically been underserved or under-resourced have the same access and ability to enter the workforce in these new, innovative career fields,” he said. “There’s an understanding that the future is coming, and it’s coming fast. Either you’re going to see it pass you by or you’re going to be a part of it.”
