Image: Bila Solar
US-based solar module manufacturer Bila Solar has begun production at its manufacturing facility in Indiana, sourcing US-made solar cells from ES Foundry in South Carolina. The facility is Central Indiana’s first and soon-to-be largest solar panel factory.
Bila Solar’s facility spans 157,000 square feet and was retrofitted from a former Eli Lilly building. It’s now producing Bila’s ultra-lightweight solar modules and their newly launched 550W dual-glass conventional panels. The new product line uses U.S.-made solar cells and qualifies for the 10% domestic content bonus under the current federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC).
Vice president and general manager of Bila Solar, Mick McDaniel said the start of production was “a pivotal moment not just for Bila Solar, but for the entire US clean energy industry.”
The production began last week, with initial output focused on ground-mount fixed-tilt and carport applications. Bila Solar said it aims to reach 300MW of annual capacity in the Phase 1 buildout at the Indianapolis facility, scaling up to 1GW of annual output at full capacity. Bila Solar had initially planned to produce glassless, flexible modules at the site when it announced its plans in 2023, but has since pivoted to producing more traditional, rigid modules for ground-mount and carport deployments.
Currently, developers are placing growing emphasis on unlocking federal incentives(before they are gutted), bolstering domestic supply chains, and decreasing dependence on imported technologies.
“Proposed legislation in Congress could upend a thriving U.S. solar industry, which is reviving American manufacturing, lowering electricity costs, and generating hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars of investments, primarily in states that voted for President Trump,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper.
Despite the promising start of operations at Bila Solar, the reality is that the President’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” is currently on track. The bill is currently in the Senate, where it could change. A group of Republican representatives recently urged senators to soften the bill’s attacks on clean energy tax credits and make “substantive changes” to its “highly restrictive and onerous language”.
