Texas Scores Another Solar Factory, Trump Or No Trump

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US President Donald Trump swept back into office last year on a mission to cut renewable energy out of the nation’s power generation profile. So much for that. Defeat is already staring him in the eye. The double whammy of solar power plus storage keeps on beating fossil fuels by a wide margin, and new solar factories keep sprouting up like mushrooms after the rain. The latest development in factory news is particularly interesting because it represents the transition to more efficient, next-generation solar cell technology.

An Industry In Transition

Until recently, the global solar industry was dominated by conventional PERC (passive emitter rear contact) solar cells. Other forms have shown early promise of superior performance, but PERC solar cells were more economical to fabricate as the mass market took shape. They quickly outran the competition, with durability being among the advantages.

Now that the industry is shifting gears into higher-performing systems, Texas is front and center. The state is already one of the solar manufacturing hotspots in the US, and the Japanese firm TOYO Solar is among those growing its business there. The company specializes in HJT solar cells, which deploy three layers of material operating in tandem.

HJT solar cells are among the next-generation technologies that researchers have been eyeing for decades. Initial efforts began in the 1970’s (here’s one example) and began to gather steam in the 1980’s, but that was right around the time PERC began to emerge, and HJT was among those to fall by the wayside as the market revved up in the 21st century.

Now the worm has turned, and TOYO is among the HJT stakeholders speeding towards production. The company got a head start in the US market last fall, when its first 1-gigawatt solar module manufacturing facility in Houston reached trial production phase. Earlier this year TOYO also announced a supply agreement with a US-based polysilicon manufacturer to be named later. “The supply of polysilicon from the Supplier underpins TOYO’s ongoing investment in U.S. manufacturing capacity, aligning with its mission to be a leading solar supplier in the U.S. market,” TOYO emphasized.

Yet Another Solar Factory For Texas, And The US

Yesterday TOYO made mores news with the unveiling of plans for a $357 million, 1.5-gigawatt solar cell manufacturing facility to complement its module factory.

“By co-locating the 1.5 GW cell line with its module operations, TOYO expects to achieve operational synergies, reduce localized logistics costs, and shorten the production cycle from raw wafer processing to finished, U.S.-made solar modules,” TOYO explained.

“The facility will produce next-generation HJT [heterojunction] cells, utilizing a technology that delivers enhanced conversion efficiencies and temperature coefficients compared to legacy solar architectures,” the company confirmed.

If you caught that thing about temperature, that’s a key development in solar technology. Conventional solar cells perform best in cooler temperatures, giving HJT the advantage in hot climates. TOYO also addressed the durability issue in yesterday’s announcement, asserting that its technology combines “industry-leading conversion efficiencies with very low annual degradation rates.”

As described by TOYO, the initial phase of the project is already well under way. If all goes according to plan, the new facility will be ready to commence pilot-scale production within 20 months.

“The new cell plant reflects TOYO’s long-term strategy to build a fully FEOC-compliant domestic manufacturing platform focused on serving the needs of the U.S. utility-scale solar market,” added TOYO CSO Rhone Resch in a press statement, with FEOC referring to the latest rules for domestic content.

“By producing premium solar products in the United States, we will be well positioned to meet the market’s evolving domestic content requirements while strengthening supply chain security and reliability,” Resch affirmed.

Fossil Fuels Down, Solar Power Up

The TOYO announcement comes at a time when the US solar industry continues to fire on all cylinders, despite facing stiff political headwinds at the federal level and among some states, too. With an assist from new energy storage systems, utility-scale solar has consistently outrun fossil energy systems for new power generation capacity additions in recent years, with 2025 marking the fifth year straight. The small-scale solar sector has also become a significant generation asset, currently reaching a cumulative total of 58 gigawatts.

The reasons are simple. Solar power is the more economical choice, and solar power plants have a relatively fast construction timeline. The closest competitor is natural gas, which continues to be hampered by a turbine backlog globally and in the US. In April, the firm Wood Mackenzie took note of the gap between manufacturing capacity and demand, leading to a forecast that the price of turbines will increase by almost 200% through next year.

As for coal power, Trump has thrown the industry a taxpayer-funded lifeline, but the effort is a temporary bandaid over long term structural problems, including rising expenses and a dwindling labor force at the supply end.

In contrast, as TOYO points out, the new generation of high-efficiency solar cells requires less land to produce the same wattage. That reduces site acquisition costs and long term maintenance costs, too.

Petroleum-fueled power plants are on the same track as coal power, and the industry can thank the President himself for that. When he decided to launch a full-on war against Iran earlier this year, Iranian leaders promptly shut down the Strait of Hormuz global shipping route, sending the price of petroluem products spiraling upwards.

Look Out, Fossil Fuels: Perovskite Solar Cells Are Coming

Aside from HJT, additional, emerging solar technologies will boost solar cell efficiency and cut costs in the coming years. TOYO, for example, is already anticipating that HJT technology will provide a host for perovskite solar cell materials. Perovskites are lab-grown crystals that mimic the superior optical qualities of the natural mineral perovskite. Their potential for solar applications became the focus of attention in the early 2000’s. Though durability was an initial concern in early research, various workarounds have surfaced, with silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells taking the lead. In a tandem solar cell, the silicon provides the durability, while perovskites boost efficiency and reduce the overall cost.

“Looking ahead, we believe HJT is the optimal technology platform for integrating next-generation perovskite solar cells, which we expect will drive the next major advancement in solar conversion efficiency and support TOYO’s long-term technology roadmap,” Resch noted in yesterday’s announcement.

Hold on to your hats…

Readers please note: TOYO did not reference TOPCon solar cells in yesterday’s announcement. If you’re familiar with that technology and its implications for the domestic solar industry, drop a note in the discussion thread.

Photo: The Japanese firm TOYO is adding a $357 million HJT solar cell manufacturing facility to its existing solar factory in Texas, creating 400 direct jobs in the city (cropped, courtesy of TOYO).