DYCM’s journey to panel manufacturing leads to California

A company called DYCM Power plans to start making solar panels at a factory in Livermore, California, before the end of 2026. The company, led by longtime energy investor Sriram Das, has spent years trying to get U.S. solar panel manufacturing off the ground, with earlier plans for factories in Colorado and the Southeast falling through due to changing federal tax credit rules and financing troubles. Instead of building a new factory, DYCM found an existing 150,000-square-foot building in Livermore that can produce up to 2 gigawatts of panels a year, letting it get running much faster than starting from scratch.

DYCM plans to assemble a type of high-efficiency solar cell called HJT (heterojunction), along with more common "n-type" panels, in sizes for both homes and larger utility projects. The company has already signed its first major supply deal, a multi-year agreement with a residential customer, though financial details have not been released.

For homeowners, this doesn't change anything immediately, but it points to more domestically made solar panels becoming available in the coming years. DYCM has also joined a federal investigation into whether Chinese-linked solar panel makers are dodging tariffs by routing production through countries like Ethiopia, part of a broader effort to build a more secure, U.S.-based supply chain for solar equipment.