TOYO's 2GW Factory in Ethiopia Commences Operation, Filling the Gap in US Solar Cell Supply!

Recently, Japanese solar manufacturer TOYO announced that its solar cell factory in Ethiopia officially commenced production in early April 2025, with an annual capacity of 2GW, marking the official launch of the company's localized manufacturing layout on the African continent. As planned, the factory will deliver over 80MW of solar cell products to customers by the end of April 2025, and will increase its monthly capacity to 150-200MW from May to June, achieving full production.

In March this year, TOYO announced plans to increase the annual capacity of its Ethiopia battery factory from 2GW to 4GW due to "strong external customer demand," aiming to supply core solar cells for its newly built 2GW module factory in Texas, US. Junsei Ryu, Chairman and CEO of TOYO, stated, "We are very optimistic about the current strong market demand and are fully advancing the expansion plan to add 2GW at the Ethiopia factory."

The commencement of production at TOYO's Ethiopia factory coincided with the US Department of Commerce imposing high "anti-dumping and countervailing" tariffs on solar cell and module products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, a move that has prompted US domestic module manufacturers to urgently seek new tariff-free solar cell supply channels.

Christian Roselund, Senior Policy Analyst at Clean Energy Associates, posted on LinkedIn, "Although most battery manufacturing has already shifted from the four Southeast Asian countries, these tariffs will completely eliminate the remaining capacity in these countries, hindering the recovery of their battery manufacturing business." Additionally, Philip Shen, Partner and Senior Analyst at Roth Capital, predicted that the next round of "anti-dumping and countervailing" investigations targeting India, Indonesia, and Laos is expected to be launched by the end of Q2 2025.