From pv magazine USA
Ebon Solar, a Delaware-based solar cell manufacturing company, has said that it will open a manufacturing facility in New Mexico. The US state, which is a center for advanced manufacturing, will now become home to an Ebon Solar facility.
The company will invest about $942 million to create the facility, which is expected to generate 900 full-time jobs. The project is developed in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol industrial development area.
The Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance (AREA) served as a key project management partner throughout Ebon Solar’s market evaluation process, facilitating many visits, interviews, and data analysis of the region and site selection support.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ebon Solar to the market; it not only represents a significant capital investment and new jobs to the community but aligns with PNM’s sustainability goals,” said Don Tarry, president and chief executive officer of electric utility PNM and the 2024 AREA Board Chair.
The Ebon Solar factory addresses a critical early upstream stage of the solar panel supply chain. Solar panels are made in a process from raw polysilicon mining, to refining into ingots, cutting into wafers, manufactured into cells, and finally assembled as modules.
While module assembly plants are opening in droves in the United States, with total cumulative capacity growing 71% nationwide in the first quarter of 2024 alone, the need for earlier stages of the chain to be addressed becomes clear. However, cell manufacturing and other early-stage manufacturing processes are quite expensive to build and operate, as evidenced by Ebon Solar’s nearly $1 billion price tag.
“Ebon Solar is proud to be an innovator in technologies that support renewable energy,” said Judy Cai, chief executive officer of Ebon Solar. “The choice of Albuquerque for our investment aligns with our commitment to sustainable innovation, and New Mexico offers abundant solar resources, favorable renewable energy policies, and a dedicated, skilled workforce.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.