If ‘Made in the USA’ is on your list of must-have features, you have a bunch of solid options to pick from.
At EnergySage, we’ve rated thousands of solar panels made by dozens of manufacturers based on efficiency, power output, warranty, and other important specs that allow each panel to make the most possible electricity over the longest period.
And if you're looking to support American workers and energy independence, there are plenty of U.S.-made solar panels available.
In fact, some of these panels (and the inverters they connect to) are among the top-rated, most popular solar equipment on the EnergySage Marketplace.
Ohio-based First Solar is the largest manufacturer of solar panels in the U.S., producing about 50% more panels than the next-biggest American-made brand. The company mainly produces panels for commercial or industrial-scale installations, which means the individual panels are less efficient than those typically used on residential rooftops, where the goal is to place as much capacity as possible in the limited available space.
Qcells is the second-largest manufacturer of solar panels in the U.S., the second most-popular brand on the EnergySage marketplace, and one of the most popular residential solar panel manufacturers, American-made or otherwise.
While Qcells is based in South Korea, the company recently opened a solar panel manufacturing plant in Georgia. Although not all of their panels are American-made (at least, not yet), you’ll still be supporting American manufacturing by choosing Qcells.
It’s worth pointing out that none of the American-made solar panels have cracked the very top tier of our performance rankings (those honors belong to Maxeon, REC, and Panasonic, each of which builds their panels in other countries).
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But U.S.-made panels such as Qcells and Canadian Solar, are ranked close behind. Sometimes, as with QCells, U.S. panels cost less to install, which can mean a faster payback period on your investment – even if the long-term energy production over multiple decades might not be quite as robust.
Looking at the broader supply chain for solar components, there are 52 companies that manufacture those products in the U.S., according to the DOE. These components include inverters, controllers, racking systems, and more. Another 12 U.S. outfits can recycle old solar equipment.
One of the most notable companies here is Enphase, whose IQ series microinverters and controllers are wildly popular on the EnergySage Marketplace. About 74% of solar quotes on EnergySage in the first half of included Enphase microinverters — more than four times the number of the next-biggest inverter brand, Tesla. Enphase’s manufacturing is contracted out to third-party factories in Wisconsin (Foxconn) and South Carolina (Flex), according to the DOE.
All that said, the bulk of panels and components are not built in America. Even though the American-made panels listed above are assembled here, many of the components still come from abroad.
Four of the biggest manufacturers are headquartered in China and primarily manufacture equipment there (though one of them, Jinko Solar, does have an American manufacturing facility in Florida). The fifth largest manufacturer is a Canadian company, Canadian Solar, which also has a manufacturing facility in Texas.
More American solar manufacturing could be coming following incentives and investments earmarked in the Inflation Reduction Act of . In fact, some of the biggest brands have already shifted some manufacturing efforts stateside: Canadian Solar opened a factory in Texas in , and Trina Solar recently signed a lease for its first U.S. solar manufacturing facility, which will be located near Dallas.
If you want to make sure you get American-made panels, you might have to shop around for an installer that gives you that choice. Some solar installers work exclusively, or near exclusively, with specific brands, which may or may not have U.S.-based plants.
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