The author is a rising senior at Park Tudor High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

When Americans think of large-scale manufacturing, the first countries that come to mind may be China, Japan, or India. However, manufacturing machines hum across Indianapolis, Indiana, and dozens of other cities in the United States. In fact, Indianapolis is a top ten manufacturing city in the United States, with 1022 companies employing over 67,000 people. There are hundreds of businesses employing Indianapolis employees. One of which is Bila Solar, a trailblazing solar manufacturing facility in downtown Indianapolis.

For decades, Indianapolis manufacturing has evolved alongside its changing industries. And now, Bila Solar is contributing to the industrial platform already present by manufacturing a method for clean energy, solar panels. While the United States demands clean energy, building solar panels in the United States remains expensive and competitive. Bila Solar operates at the center of that challenge, and is a model for doing so. They produce a thousand solar panels a day, employ hundreds of employees, and have one of the most unique solar panel designs on the market.

Bila Solar is incredibly unique because it is the only solar manufacturing facility in the entire Indianapolis. Why would Bila Solar choose to manufacture in Indianapolis? That’s a fair question; most people only know Indiana for its corn fields and annual Indy 500. Bila Solar’s head of U.S. Operations, Wei Tai Kwok, describes Indianapolis as a beacon of potential for solar success due to its location and worker access. Indianapolis, nestled in the heart of the Midwest, is able to comfortably ship to all parts of the United States and abroad. Even more, the worker population in Indianapolis is well versed in commercial manufacturing, especially on cars and pharmaceuticals. In short, Indianapolis was a perfect fit.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Bila Solar facility the Spring of 2026. From just my short visit, it was strikingly clear that Bila Solar is a trailblazer in the renewable energy community; their solar panels have a novel, lightweight design, and their manufacturing process is incredibly efficient.

Solar panels are traditionally composed of a silicon photovoltaic cell that converts incoming electrons to create an electrical current that can be used as an energy source. In the last 16 years, the cost of silicon has significantly decreased, which has allowed solar panel manufacturing to increase across the globe. As the market is saturated with many solar panel options,

Bila Solar’s panels stand out. Their smallest panel is only 17 pounds, 30% of the weight of standard panels, and 95% thinner. Bila Solar’s lightweight design allows for more efficient installation and placement of panels on commercial and residential buildings. Bila Solar’s actual production technique is also unique. After importing photovoltaic cells composed of silicon, Bila Solar has an elaborate assembly technique, consisting of some of the most advanced machinery on the market. With their manufacturing methods, Bila Solar is able to produce over 1000 panels a day, and hopes to increase that number as they expand their operation.

Of course, what also makes Bila Solar especially inspiring is the fact that they create solar panels. Solar panels are a key method of reducing an individual’s or a business’s greenhouse gas output by harnessing energy from the sun instead of fossil fuels. For this reason, solar panels are a type of renewable energy, as they involve using the inexhaustible energy of the sun.

What stood out to me about Bila Solar was their commitment to creating an “American” operation, where solar panels could be created and shipped in the United States. In the modern day, it is easy for people from the U.S. to purchase less expensive items from foreign countries, which ultimately contributes to greater greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, and Bila Solar is trying to combat that by manufacturing and shipping its solar panels within the United States. Bila Solar’s efforts are increasingly difficult to implement as the Inflation Reduction Act, which subsidized domestic solar production, is currently being rolled back by the Trump administration. Nonetheless, Bila Solar continues to inspire the Indianapolis community, creating approximately 1000 solar panels a day and helping reduce the United States’ greenhouse gas output.

Special thanks to the Bila Solar team and Wei Tai Kwok for allowing me to tour their unique facility.

Bila Solar: The Future of Solar Manufacturing in the US © 2026 by Youth Environmental Press Team is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/