FILE PHOTO: This undated image shows a render of a $1 billion solar cell and panel factory that Maxeon Solar will build in Albuquerque, New Mexico to serve surging demand for American-made clean energy equipment. Maxeon Solar/Handout via REUTERS
Albuquerque: Maxeon Solar will spend more than US$1bil to build a solar cell and panel factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, spurred by manufacturing subsidies in US President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change law.
The investment is the latest by an overseas producer seeking to capitalise on incentives in the year-old Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to boost homegrown supplies of renewable energy components and compete with China.
The Singapore-based company is planning a three gigawatt (GW) facility that will open in 2025 and create 1,800 jobs, it said in a statement. It is subject to the successful closure of financing that the company is seeking through a US Department of Energy loan-guarantee programme for clean energy projects.
The facility on a 65-ha site in Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol neighbourhood will be Maxeon’s first in the US. It currently produces panels in Mexico, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“Our new solar cell and panel facility in New Mexico is an ambitious and concrete response to the need to decarbonise the US economy while creating permanent highly skilled local manufacturing and engineering jobs,” Maxeon chief executive Bill Mulligan said in a statement.
Maxeon is weighing a plan that would increase the size of the facility to 4.5 GW due to anticipated customer demand. It will make a final decision later this year.
Since passage of the IRA, companies have announced more than US$270bil in investments in clean energy projects and manufacturing facilities, according to the American Clean Power Association.
Maxeon was spun off from US residential solar installer SunPower in 2020. The two companies have a long-term supply agreement for Maxeon’s high-efficiency panels. — Reuters
