Japanese solar solution company Toyo has announced it plans to establish a new solar cell manufacturing facility in Hawassa, Ethiopia.

The facility will have an expected annual capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW), representing an estimated investment of $60m. Furthermore, it will reportedly create around 880 new job opportunities.

Toyo will retrofit a 31,500sqm facility according to the updated requirements of automated cell production. The factory will begin fitting out in November of 2024 and is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2025.

The company chose Ethiopia for its new site owing to the country's favourable investment policies, tariff status, and ample hydropower supply. Additionally, Ethiopia is exempt from tariffs for bifacial solar cells under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 of the U.S.

Junsei Ryu, CEO of Toyo said, "We are thrilled to embark on this ambitious project, which will enable us to rapidly scale up solar cell production to meet the needs of our planned module facility in the United States.”

He added that the new facility, while enhancing production capacity, will also "increase efficiency, reduce costs, and respond more swiftly to market demands."

In August 2024, Toyo announced plans for two new 2GW factories expected to start construction in Q4 2024. Last year in November 2023, it opened a new solar cell factory in Vietnam.

"Toyo announces new solar cell facility in Ethiopia" was originally created and published by Investment Monitor, a GlobalData owned brand.

 

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