One of the world’s leading industrial manufacturers appears to be the latest firm to jump on the incentives offered by the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA.)
Germany’s Siemens announced on Tuesday, August 15th, that it has signed an agreement with Sanmina, a manufacturing facility in the state of Wisconsin, to produce solar power equipment for the US market by next year.
Under the agreement, Siemens is set to produce solar string inverters at Sanmina’s Kenosha, WI facility. String inverters convert power generated by solar panels into electricity. The electricity produced using this technology will then be siphoned into the country’s utility scale market.
According to Brian Dula, Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA’s vice-president for electrification and automation, this partnership with Sanmina sets up a new production line that will enable his company to address issues related to the country’s power supply,
Benefiting the Community
The initiative will also help drive localized production of green and renewable infrastructure to further drive the US towards self-sufficiency when it comes to green energy.
Likewise, the development of Siemens’ Kenosha plant will also help its host community through the generation of employment, beginning with at least twelve new positions. This is expected to grow over time, as Siemens expects to scale up to a total annual capacity of 800 megawatts’ worth of inverters.
The IRA a Year On
Under the IRA, solar initiatives utilizing equipment or resources produced in the United States may qualify for tax credits worth around 10% of the total project cost.
In the year since it was ratified, the IRA has already released around $100 billion investments into the domestic solar sector. Approximately $20 billion of this sum has gone into initiatives related to solar power facilities and the manufacturing of energy storage solutions.
To date, over 50 solar manufacturing facilities have been expanded or are now in the process of development thanks to IRA investments.
