Interestinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/bill-gates-backed-startup-plans-large-solar-power-component-plant-11671076779?mod=djemCIO
The wafer startup, Massachusetts-based CubicPV Inc., plans to build a plant by 2025 that can produce enough material for 10 gigawatts of solar panels a year—sufficient to supply roughly 80% of the large-scale solar projects installed last year—at a cost of around $1 billion, said Frank van Mierlo, the company’s CEO.
CubicPV is backed by investors including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures and First Solar Inc., the U.S.’s biggest solar panel maker. It has hired executives with manufacturing experience, has contracted with an engineering company and is talking with potential buyers interested in purchasing its wafers, said Mr. van Mierlo. If all goes well, the company will decide on the site for its plant next month and start construction in the middle of next year, he said.
CubicPV had long pursued new wafer-making technology that combines those two steps into one process, but it hadn’t yet rolled it out commercially. To reduce the risk for the U.S. factory, CubicPV will use conventional ingot and wafer technology, said Mr. van Mierlo.
https://cubicpv.com/technology/