Establishing a Non-China Solar Supply Chain
OCI Holdings will invest $265 million in Texas, USA, to establish a new solar power corporation.
OCI Holdings announced on the 20th that it will build a solar cell manufacturing plant on the site of its US solar business subsidiary, Mission Solar Energy (MSE), to expand the solar power value chain in the United States.
With a total investment of $265 million (approximately 384 billion KRW), commercial production of 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar cells is planned to begin in the first half of 2026, followed by a gradual expansion of 1 GW in the second half, securing a total production capacity of over 2 GW.
Through this, OCI Holdings will establish a non-China solar supply chain linking the polysilicon from its Malaysian subsidiary OCI TerraSus to the cells of the new corporation.
OCI TerraSus’s polysilicon for solar power is based on eco-friendly hydropower in Malaysia, meeting RE100 requirements, and complies with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) strengthened by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), making it a competitively recognized product for export to the US by global customers.
US cell manufacturers will receive an advanced manufacturing production credit (AMPC) of 4 cents per watt (W) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and customers using a certain percentage or more of US-made components in solar projects with these cells can receive an additional 10% investment tax credit (ITC), improving profitability.
Since starting the US solar module manufacturing business in 2014 as the first domestic company to do so, OCI Holdings has accumulated extensive experience and know-how in large-scale and diverse solar projects over more than 10 years.
In particular, the establishment of this solar cell manufacturing plant is expected to reduce costs by utilizing existing sites and facilities, and shorten the time to commercial production by more than one year compared to other companies due to pre-obtained various permits and approvals.
Lee Woo-hyun, Chairman of OCI Holdings, said, “Through the establishment of this new solar cell corporation, we will begin US-made cell production in a clean supply chain made with polysilicon from OCI TerraSus,” adding, “Starting with this minimum cost and shortest period project, we will gradually strengthen the solar power value chain within the US.”
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