ET Solar is back in the US market

ET Solar has seen ups and downs over the last 20 months. In December 2017, the module distribution subsidiary of the Chinese PV maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in California. And in February of this year, the company received court approval for the settlement of its claims.

Under new backers Yuanfar and Wuxi Bardon Company, California-based ET Solar, Inc., was back in business in March. The company reports that over the five months that followed, it racked up more than 500 MW in module supply contracts. This includes 400 MW which will be delivered in the second half of 2020.

“We are back,” stated Alex Chen, the head of sales and marketing for ET Solar USA.

Chen says that most of the 2020 orders are for its half-cut mono-PERC products, both bifacial and mono-facial versions. These are likely to be produced in the company’s new cell and module factories in Vietnam and Cambodia, the first of which is scheduled to come online in the fourth quarter of this year.

Chen also revealed that the company’s 2020 orders are mostly going to Nevada and what he calls the “booming” Texas market. This includes an order to supply 60 MW to an Apple data center in Nevada.

ET’s bifacial products benefit from the recent exemption for bifacial products from the Section 201 tariffs. Its Elite bifacial half-cut modules carry a 30-year output warranty in addition to a 10-year product warranty, with power ratings of 375-395 watts for its 144-cell ET-M672BHXXXGL series.

“I think the most important thing is customer service,” said Chen, noting that in addition to the longer warranty, that the company has an internal system for risk management in product delivery.

There could be a lot more business where this came from. With its current sales pipeline, the company expects to supply 800 MW of modules to the U.S. market in 2020. And under its current expansion plans, it expects its Southeast Asian factories to reach a capacity of 2 GW of cells annually in early 2020.

The demand is certainly there. pv magazine research indicates a booming market for utility-scale solar through both wholesale markets in Texas and the U.S. Midwest, as well as a surge in utility plans to procure solar in Florida and Georgia.