Heliene Inc. has been searching the Twin Cities commercial industrial market for space to house what will be one of the larger Solar manufacturing facilities in the country.

Based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the company currently operates Minnesota’s only solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Mountain Iron on the Iron Range. The plant opened in 2018 and has undergone expansion as demand for solar has dramatically increased.

Chief Executive Officer Martin Pochtaruk said Heliene hired 45 people last week and will employ more than 300 people in Mountain Iron by year’s end after an expansion has been completed.

Yet that plant will look small compared to what Pochtaruk has planned for the Twin Cities. He wants to lease a site with more than 500,000 square feet that will employ more than 500 people, making Heliene a sought-after commodity by brokers and metro communities looking to land a company in an industry with plenty of jobs and skyrocketing growth.

“There has been every week at least half a dozen Realtors, brokers, and companies reaching out,” he said. Although Heliene constructed a new building in Mountain Iron, Pochtaruk said he prefers leasing an existing facility.

Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association Executive Director Logan O’Grady said the presence of Heliene in Minnesota “is extremely important to the entire industry and supply chain because our members have for a long time been yearning for more options in terms of product. Heliene offers them kind of a homegrown product that they can invest in.”

The Twin Cities facility will have two module assembly lines that are expected to cost $25 million. Heliene will also spend $200 million to create a photovoltaic cell production line, which it does not have in Mountain Iron. “It’s an order of magnitude itself,” Pochtaruk said. “Cell manufacturing is much more expensive.”

Typically, solar manufacturing plants in the United States, such as Heliene’s Mountain Iron factory, mix and match American-built components with those from Southeast Asia and China, the world’s largest supplier of solar parts and panels. They assemble the panels with pieces from domestic and global suppliers.

Pochtaruk said manufacturing cells domestically makes more economic sense now. Having the cells produced next to the assembly lines saves time and money. The federal government’s Inflation Reduction Act restored the solar tax credit, which had been declining, to 30% and added another 10% for panels that meet specific criteria for being at least partly made in the United States.

“We don’t make anything [on the tax credits], but they do drive demand,” he said, and business has been brisk. In August, the CEO of Nexamp Inc., the nation’s largest community solar developer, announced at an event at Heliene’s factory that it would purchase 1.5 gigawatts of panels from the company over the next five years to help build 400 projects. It is the most significant community solar order in history.

Secondly, Pochtaruk said trade issues have made solar cell importation difficult, especially the allegations that China uses slave labor in cell production.

“All of that creates a very high geopolitical risk and uncertainty,” he said. “So how do you ensure that your operation is not affected? One good way is to manufacture them [the panels] ourselves.”

Finally, Pochtaruk said Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act (SEMA), part of the Inflation Reduction Act, has made building a new factory possible. “It makes the payback very high, hundreds of millions,” he said. The two plants together will produce around 2 gigawatts of electricity annually, enough to power around 1.5 million homes.

The Twin Cities plant will be expensive. Pochtaruk said refurbishing a building will cost more than $50 million and acquiring equipment for cell manufacturing adds another $120 million. Cell manufacturing also requires clean rooms and a water treatment system because of the chemicals used in the fabrication process, he said.

Heliene’s growth and the federal government’s support of clean energy have attracted investors. Orion Infrastructure Capital announced last month that it raised $170 million in debt and equity financing for Heliene in partnership with 2Shores Capital and two of the solar company’s customers.

Pochtaruk said he expects to compete for money from Minnesota Forward, a $400 million fund created by legislation earlier this year that includes $50 million available to help companies who need matching funds for federal programs.

Kevin McKinnon, DEED deputy commissioner, said the Forward Fund puts the state in a more competitive position to help companies like Heliene and attract new ones to the state. The fund will help companies “who are going to be part of our energy future and, equally important, get us in these emerging industries at a more robust level.”

McKinnon said Heliene has also received funding since opening in 2018 from DEED and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). The relationship of Heliene with DEED will continue as the new plant comes together, he said. McKinnon believes companies supplying parts to the solar industry will also benefit from a potential in-state buyer.

Pochtaruk said the new Twin Cities facility will face the same challenges he faced in Mountain Iron, starting with finding enough employees in a tight labor market. Mountain Iron employees start at $19 an hour with benefits, and more technical positions pay significantly more.

Secondly, dumping artificially low-cost panels from Southeast Asia continues to be a problem. Meanwhile, the federal government has imposed tariffs on more than 3,000 Chinese products, including machines Pochtaruk needs for his plant.

“We’re all celebrated for creating jobs, yet we get hit on the head with a baseball bat, paying 25% import duties and on the equipment we need,” he said. He hopes the federal government will consider an exemption for solar equipment.

With the Twin Cities investment, Minnesota will continue to be important as Heliene expands. The Mountain Iron facility will soon produce three times the panels as its Canadian counterpart in Sault Ste. Marie.