Chinese solar firm to open a US factory – a manufacturing win for Biden

Published

2 years ago

January 14, 2023

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China’s JA Solar, the world’s fourth-largest solar panel maker by capacity, is going to open its first factory in the US – a major win for the Biden administration, which has created a domestic clean energy manufacturing growth boom with laws passed late last year.

Beijing-headquartered JA Solar has leased space in Phoenix to manufacture photovoltaic products – a $60 million investment.

The Arizona Commerce Authority said in an announcement that the facility is expected to be operational by fourth quarter 2023, and that the new US plant will create more than 600 jobs.

JA Solar says it will use “highly automated assembly lines to produce high-efficiency solar panels (PV modules) for commercial and residential rooftop applications, as well as for utility-scale solar power plant deployment.”

Once it’s fully up and running, the Phoenix factory will have an annual production capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

Electrek’s Take

It’s been a very good week for US solar manufacturing announcements: Seoul-headquartered Qcells announced on January 11 that it’s going to manufacture 3.3 GW of solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels in Bartow County, Georgia. It will also assemble an additional 2 GW of solar panels at its Dalton, Georgia, facility – the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere.

Add to that the announcement by First Solar in November 2022 that it’s going to open a fourth PV solar module factory in Alabama by 2025 with a planned annual capacity of 3.5 GW.

To put it all in perspective [via Bloomberg], “The US currently has 4.5 gigawatts of annual silicon panel production capacity, according to BloombergNEF data.”

So just these three projects alone – and there are more – more than double the United States’ current annual solar production capacity.

I also reported this week that China’s Trina Solar is going to open a factory in Vietnam in order to comply with US trade laws. Trina Solar was one of the Chinese solar companies preliminarily found by the US Department of Commerce to be attempting to dodge US tariffs by doing minor processing in Southeast Asian countries before shipping its solar products to the US.

The US solar industry has understandably been concerned that the DOC investigation and tariffs on Chinese solar would stifle solar component supply to the US in the short term as demand mushrooms.

But it’s apparent that in the longer term, the Biden administration’s tariff actions, along with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, are going to stimulate US clean energy manufacturing growth.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

Published

7 hours ago

November 5, 2024

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Cybertruck backlog runs out, Model S gets stuck, GM hits a sales milestone

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!

Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.

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New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonusLucid proves than an EV company can keep its promises while Xiaomi teams up with Chevrolet and Honda to prove – at least conceptually – that records are made to be broken. audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news!

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This ‘supercharger on wheels’ brings fast charging to you [update]

Published

9 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]

Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”

November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).

It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.

Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”

May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.

“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.

The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)

Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)

Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.

The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.

To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Published

9 hours ago

November 4, 2024

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Marqeta shares plunge more than 30% on big forecast miss

Marqeta celebrates its initial public offering at the Nasdaq on June 9, 2021.

Source: The Nasdaq

Marqeta shares tumbled more than 30% in extended trading on Monday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance for the fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Loss per share: 6 cents adjusted vs. a loss of 5 cents expected
Revenue: $128 million vs. $128.1 million expected

While third-quarter results showed a slight disappointment on the top and bottom lines, Marqeta’s forecast for the current period was more concerning.

The payment processing firm said revenue in the fourth quarter will increase 10% to 12% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for growth of more than 17%, according to LSEG.

Marqeta, which primarily functions as a card-issuing platform, attributed the guidance miss to “heightened scrutiny of the banking environment and specific customer program changes.” The company has been struggling for a while, and its stock is now down more than 80% from its peak in 2021, the year it went public. The stock was down 15% for the year prior to the report.

Total processing volume of $74 billion was up more than 30% from a year earlier. Net revenue and gross profit were up 18% and 24%, respectively.

Marqeta’s digital commerce business sells payment technology designed to detect potential fraud and ensure that money is properly routed. It also issues customized physical cards that look like a credit or debit card that can be used for point-of-sale purchases.

The company has been trying to break into the buy now, pay later business with a recently launched product called Marqeta Flex. The service brings BNPL from lenders such as Affirm or Klarna to any credit card wherever Mastercard and Visa are accepted.

“It’s an orchestration layer, but it’s tied to issuing and processing and disputes and chargebacks,” CEO Simon Khalaf told CNBC at Money2020 in Las Vegas last week. “So it is not actually a Wild West in BNPL. It is actually very well established. And there is a reason why a lot of people are jumping to it.”