Germany-based multinational technology conglomerate Siemens announced Tuesday that it plans to manufacture photovoltaic string inverters at Sanmina’s facility in Pleasant Prairie. Photovoltaics is the conversion of light into electricity (solar power) using semiconducting materials.

San Jose, California-based Sanmina is an electronics manufacturer that serves OEMs in the communications and hardware fields, and is a long-time manufacturing partner of Siemens.

Siemens said Sanmina’s Pleasant Prairie facility will help it “meet increased demand for localized production of critical parts for photovoltaic projects while helping customers take advantage of the full value of solar tax credits and domestic content incentives.”

Siemens’ work at the Sanmina facility in Pleasant Prairie will create up to a dozen jobs during the initial ramp-up period with plans to grow employment at the facility and through the regional supply chain in the future, Siemens said.

The Siemens production at the facility is expected to begin in early 2024 and will scale up to a capacity of 5,200 string inverters per year, the company said. The string inverters, which will range from 125 to 155 kilowatts, will be manufactured with a California Energy Commission efficiency of 99%. The inverters are designed for 1000- or 1500-volt DC solar array input and can be utilized for either decentralized or virtual central design architectures, the company said.

Production at the Pleasant Prairie facility joins a growing family of Siemens infrastructure manufacturing hubs across the U.S., the company said.

“This new production line at the Sanmina facility represents Siemens’ strategic priorities to best serve our U.S. customers while being a key partner in our nation’s transition to a more sustainable future,” said Ruth Gratzke, president of Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA. “The investments we’re making in communities like Kenosha (Pleasant Prairie) and the work that we will be doing to bring renewable infrastructure to life will have a crucial impact as we work towards our net-zero goals as a country.”

Siemens made the announcement in conjunction with President Joe Biden’s visit to Milwaukee on Tuesday. Biden spoke at the Ingeteam plant in Milwaukee. Ingeteam, based in Spain, makes generators and converters for wind turbines and solar power inverters at its Milwaukee plant.

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