SEG Solar has secured land for a planned US$950 million heterojunction solar cell factory near Houston, Texas, with 4 GW of annual capacity. The plant would sit beside the company's module factories and let it make both cells and modules on one site, a combination that is still rare in the United States.
The project
The Houston-based manufacturer said on 29 October that it had signed a land agreement for the facility at its Tomball Industrial Campus in the greater Houston area. The plant will produce heterojunction (HJT) cells, a high-efficiency cell technology.
It is planned in two phases of 2 GW each, with commercial operation targeted for 2028 and 2029. SEG expects the factory to create more than 700 local jobs. PV Tech notes that no detailed construction schedule or further investment milestones have been disclosed.
Cells next to modules
The cell plant will be next to SEG's 4 GW Tomball #1 module facility, which opened earlier in 2026, and its 4.6 GW Tomball #2 module facility, which is under construction. Once complete, the campus would also include warehousing, an R&D centre, a certified testing laboratory and planned production lines for EVA film and junction boxes.
According to the company, this would make Tomball one of the few sites in the United States where HJT cells, modules and key components are made in one place.
SEG was founded in 2021. It says it had shipped more than 7.5 GW of modules worldwide by the end of 2025 and had 6.5 GW of annual module production capacity at that point. PV Tech reports that the company announced a 3 GW ingot and wafer facility in Indonesia in December 2025.
"Bringing HJT cell manufacturing to the U.S. will give customers a more domestic supply chain with clearer sourcing," said Jim Wood, chief executive officer of SEG Solar. "American-made cells, American-made modules, one company accountable."
Why domestic cells matter
Where the cell is made matters for federal domestic content rules. pv magazine USA notes that pairing Texas-assembled modules with domestic HJT cells would help developers and asset owners meet those requirements under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The announcement also comes as the US closes off more sources of imported cells. The Commerce Department issued final antidumping and countervailing duty determinations on solar products from India, Indonesia and Laos in September, and formal orders are expected soon.
What it means for the Americas market
For US developers, a 4 GW domestic cell supply from 2028 would widen the choice of modules that qualify for domestic content bonuses and reduce exposure to trade cases. But the timeline is long and the project is still at the land stage, so buyers should treat it as future supply rather than a near-term answer. For manufacturers across the Americas, the move confirms where the competition is heading: from simple module assembly towards integrated cell and module production close to the customer.
Source: SEG Solar press release, 29 October 2026; PV Tech, 30 October 2026; pv magazine USA, 29 October 2026.
