American power producers, as well as commercial and industrial users, are continuing to ramp up capacity in renewable power in the United States despite the pronounced anti-renewables stance of the second Donald Trump administration, according to the management of solar power major Waaree Energies.
Besides the Trump administration's promotion of conventional fossil fuels and scepticism over the man-made causes of climate change, it has also passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cuts some tax credits towards renewable energy projects that were put in place by Trump's predecessor Joe Biden in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Waaree has also faced a patent infringement lawsuit in the US from Chinese photovoltaics firm Jinko Solar, over its TOPCon solar cell technology. The company has declined to comment on the case.
Despite regulatory and trade setbacks, "secular" growth drivers, such as the growing need for data centres serving artificial intelligence needs, as well as cheaper and cleaner sources of power, is incentivising much of the new capacity addition by various players, said Waaree's MD and CEO Amit Paithankar, in an interaction with Moneycontrol.
The increased solar use also meets sustainability needs of data hyperscalers, with data centres being large-scale power consumers.
US power producers have added 12 GW of utility-scale solar power in the first half of 2025, according to a report from the Energy Information Administration, a US federal agency. According to its projections, solar power is expected to constitute around half of the record 64 GW of capacity expected to be added in the country.
"Economics and practicality is driving demand in the US. Everybody knows that it is the cheapest form of energy available right now and practical, because how can anyone deploy at GW-level scale in a short period of a year or two years? It is very difficult to do it in any other form other than solar in particular and renewables in general. Whether you talk about coal-fired, gas fired or even nuclear, for instance, will take upwards of five to even seven years to build GW-scale," Paithankar said, during the interaction.
Waaree, one of the renewables firms that has invested in the US market to manufacture there in order to penetrate the north American market, has committed around $1.2 billion towards its facility in Brookshire in Texas, a state now leading the US in renewables adoption.
Paithankar added that the company will continue to invest in the United States, including plans to double its capacity in Brookshire to 3.2 GW, and is also looking at further opportunities, including at its $18.5 million acquisition of the manufacturing assets of Meyer Burger, a photovoltaics firm, in Arizona. Besides manufacturing solar cells, Waaree may also look at battery manufacturing in the US.
"Everything (US investment plan) is on track. We have 1.6 GW of capacity in the Texas facility. We are going to move from 1.6 GW to 3.2 GW also. We just acquired the manufacturing assets of Meyer Berger in the in the state of Arizona, and that gives us additional 1 GW module manufacturing capacity. We are always on the lookout for various options that are available to us. So we have a good footprint for now. We have talked about the fact that we will get into cell manufacturing. The question is when. We will look at how the market there evolves," said Paithankar.
Paithankar spoke after Waaree Energies reported what it called its best-ever earnings quarter in the July-September period, reporting a 70 percent year-on-year increase in its revenue to around Rs 6,226 crore, with profits more than doubling to Rs 878 crore. EBITDA was reported at Rs 1,567 crore, while the EBITDA margin rose by more than eight percentage points to 25.17 percent.
The company has guided an EBITDA in the range of Rs 5,500 crore-Rs 6,000 crore for the ongoing financial year.
Paithankar also added that ongoing anti-dumping investigations by US authorities on solar cells, which has resulted in large-scale duties on solar cell imports from Malaysia, Cambodia, and elsewhere, has not had any impact on Waaree, due to what he called the "configuration" in its supply chains.
In India, the company has announed fresh capital expenditure plans worth Rs 8,175 crore, the bulk of which is expected to be spent on its storage cell and battery energy storage system (BESS) facility, expected to be located near the company's existing Chikhli plant in Gujarat.
Despite global uncertainties over tariffs, the ongoing trade tiff between India and the United States, and a depreciating rupee, Waaree Energies' stock has managed to find favour with investors, trading 22 percent higher since the beginning of the year. On October 20, Waaree Energies' shares traded at Rs 3,493.10 apiece on the National Stock Exchange.
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