Norway-based solar power component maker NorSun says it plans to spend $620 million to build its first U.S.-based factory — a 5 GW facility in Tulsa, Okla., that will produce silicon ingots and wafers for solar cells and panels, according to the company. announced
NorSun said it chose a 60-acre site at Tulsa International Airport, and construction will begin in late 2024. The status of the contractor selection was not disclosed. The project is in cooperation with the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust, said a state announcement in late June that cited “an attractive economic package” from the state, city and trust airport, but did not disclose dollar incentives.
Commissioning of the plant is scheduled for 2026, “making the Oklahoma facility one of the first in the US to produce high-performance silicon ingots and wafers, currently the largest bottleneck to achieve a fully national solar supply chain,” the state said.
The Tulsa site offers room to expand production to 10 GW, NorSun said.
“Our business plan has an ambitious timeline … to meet the critical need for energy manufactured in the United States,” said the company’s CEO Erik Løkke-Øwre, who cited “the manufacturing ecosystem ” of Oklahoma, as well as labor supply and potential for expansion. Oslo-based NorSun received a $60 million grant from the European Union’s Innovation Fund last year to expand its current 1GW factory in Årdal, Norway to 3GW. It also raised $8.5 million from equity investors last year.
Since its launch in 2007, the company has been the leading Western producer of monocrystalline ingots and wafers for high-efficiency solar cells.
