Enel North America, through its affiliate 3Sun USA, has finalised a location for its planned solar photovoltaic (PV) cell and panel manufacturing facility in Inola, Oklahoma. Covering more than two million square feet, the manufacturing facility is expected to reach an annual production capacity of 3 GW in 2025. Construction work at the facility is expected to begin in the autumn of 2023. The project entails a planned investment of more than $1 billion and is expected to create over 1,800 jobs during the construction phase.
Enel North America confirmed that the first panels from the factory will be available on the market by the end of 2024. This will be among the first facilities in the US to produce solar cells, which are the fundamental building blocks of PV modules. The company also noted that there is scope to expand the facility to a 6 GW capacity in the future, which could see the creation of an additional 900 new direct jobs.
In September 2021, Enel Green Power launched a pilot plant for the production of green hydrogen in Chile. The project is Chile’s first industrial-scale production plant of green hydrogen. The plant is located at Cabo Negro north of Punta Arenas and has a capacity of 1.25 MW. It is expected to produce green hydrogen through electrolysis powered by a 3.4 MW wind turbine. The plant is likely to be operational by 2022.
