NexWafe has established a subsidiary to evaluate the development of multi-gigawatt-scale solar wafer production in the US with an initial target production volume of 6GW.
The North American operation will leverage NexWafe’s EpiNex production technology from the company’s 250MW first commercial facility, which is under construction in Bitterfeld, Germany.
As part of this expansion, NexWafe appointed solar industry veteran Jonathan Pickering as Vice-resident of Business Development for North America to spearhead US operations.
Pickering was previously President of JA Solar Americas, and a former Vice-president at Applied Materials. His experience spans the solar value chain from solar wafer and solar cell processing equipment to solar module manufacturing and commercial solar project development.
“Silicon wafers are critical materials for the energy transition, and Jonathan’s leadership will be key as we embark on establishing gigawatt-scale wafer manufacturing in the US,” said Davor Sutija, CEO of NexWafe.
Jonathan Pickering, VP of Business Development, North America, NexWafe, added: “Multiple top-tier solar companies have committed to advanced PV cell and module manufacturing at a multi-gigawatt scale across the US. But now we see a significant bottleneck in the supply chain for a domestic source of silicon wafers.
“Our breakthrough EpiNex direct ‘gas-to-wafer’ manufacturing process targets this exact opportunity. We are developing a gigawatt-scale facility to manufacture high-performance. American-made, thin silicon wafers to serve our US customers, and we can do so while achieving a 60% reduction in the carbon footprint compared to today’s technology.”