Environment and Energy

Origami Solar keeps supply chain domestic with three US fabricators

June 24, 2024

Origami Solar has partnered with three US steel fabricators to prioritize a domestic supply chain for its solar frames.

The three firms are Priefert of Mt. Pleasant, Texas; Welser Profile of Valley City, Ohio; and Unimacts of Houston.

The Bend, Ore.-based solar panel company said this will help it to ship steel solar frames to customers in Q1’25. Additionally, Origami said that this US-based supply chain means frames can get from the fabricator to the module manufacturer in one to two days.

“Thanks to our newly announced partnerships and all-domestic supply chain, there is simply no reason for the solar industry to accept the enormous risk that comes with imported aluminum frames,” Origami Solar CEO Gregg Patterson said in a statement on June 20.

Origami noted that steel solar frames “withstand greater module load levels and have 90% less embodied carbon than comparable aluminum frames.”

Rocky Christenberry, Priefert’s EVP, said, “Thanks to our partnership with Origami, we were able to expand our investments in the solar industry, keep our Benton, Ark., facility open, keep our current employees hard at work, and expand to up to 70 additional skilled workers over the next three years.”

Ethan Bernard

Ethan Bernard is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. He previously worked for American Metal Market as a copy editor in the New York office for two years starting in 2008. Later, he copy edited AMM’s monthly magazine on a freelance basis from 2015 until 2017. With experience in financial copywriting and textbook publishing, he holds a BA in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and an MFA. in Creative Writing from New York University. He can be reached at ethan@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7871.