Mitrex is planning a 2.5-GW solar factory for panels and also BIPV products

• Canadian solar firm Mitrex means to open a 2.5-GW photovoltaic panel manufacturing facility in the United States, with a final area selection announced quickly. The company, which presently runs a 500-MW plant in Toronto, Ontario, that makes colored photovoltaic panels, BIPV cladding and traditional photovoltaic panels, expects the U.S. location to start production in Q1 2024.

Mitrex CEO Danial Hadizadeh told Solar Power World that the business is presently completing an area, and tools has been ordered. Mitrex formerly specified that the united state factory ought to support 250 new jobs, and also the site will make a mix of building-integrated PV items and typical solar panels.

" Our specialized is in developing envelope and structure cladding, yet having basic panels in addition to colored panels places us in much better distribution networks and also raises our market reach," Hadizadeh said.

The firm started in 2003 as Global Canadian Advanced Technologies (GCAT) Team, concentrating on the effective manufacturing of construction material. A BIPV product was created and also ultimately Mitrex was drawn out to focus on solar building. The Ontario plant began manufacturing in 2021, and also Mitrex has a united state warehouse simply across Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York City. The Rochester site remains in the final running for Mitrex's U.S. production hub.

The goal is to have a 2.5-GW annual capacity site, with the bulk being devoted to traditional solar panels in the beginning.

" Just how we use it really relies on market problems," Hadizadeh said. "We hope we can do much more on BIPV, but we will focus our colored panels and roofing panels till the market for BIPV will certainly be big enough to catch the whole capacity."

Mitrex makes its very own glass, which enables the business to control the production of its specialized colored photovoltaic panels. That vertical assimilation would be embraced in the U.S. plant too.

The firm features a variety of BIPV products on its website-- solar façades, glass, railings, house siding as well as sound barriers-- along with traditional 390- to 440-W photovoltaic panels with white or black backsheets in half- or full-cell designs. Mitrex is continuously playing in R&D, like when it introduced a double-solar-panel back in 2021.

" We have a great deal of R&D initiatives, and we do have a lot of fascinating product that we're releasing," Hadizadeh stated. "Not every one of them end up being a mass-produced item. Some just reach the R&D status, but it has to do with forging ahead and making sure we are considering it from a various angle."

Mitrex is presently developing new solar panel designs as well as will have a new product announcement this summer. Right now, Mitrex is focusing on its united state production strategies.

" Who doesn't wish to do business in the U.S.? It's the bigger market, and also we are right at the boundary," Hadizadeh stated. "Our strategy has actually always been to have several plants in the united state due to the size of the market. What we carried out in Canada, even though it's huge, we still call it our proof of principle. That's why the next plant is so much larger."