While TaiyangNews was co-organizing the first Solar Made in USA Conference during RE+ and attended the trade show in Anaheim in early September 2024, we talked to several executives looking into manufacturing in the US. One relatively young and exciting start-up we interviewed has not been on the radar of many so far - ES Foundry. During RE+, TaiyangNews managing Director Michael Schmela had a brief talk with the founder and CEO of ES Foundry, Alex Zhu.
TaiyangNews: Alex, you are planning on something that would address huge demand from several module makers in the US – a cell production facility. Can you please provide more details on this project?
Alex Zhu: Right now, we are building our 1st solar cell factory in Greenwood, South Carolina and we are targeting to have our 1st cell by December 2024. The ramping up is expected to start from January next year. We will reach 3 GW capacities by June 2025.
TaiyangNews: That makes you one of the early birds here. We had our event ‘Solar Made In The USA’ at the beginning of RE+. We learned from the event that the industry was concerned about all these modules coming online. On the other hand, the more upstream part is missing in particular cells, but of course also wafers and ingots. Our understanding is that ES Foundry is off the radar to an extent, right? When did you actually start?
Alex Zhu: It started 1 year ago. We started thinking about what we needed to do when we saw this surging demand in last year’s RE+. Eventually, we chose the solar cell. It was a very difficult journey because solar cells need a huge upfront investment and then we have to leverage a module manufacturer, which is the end customer. Then there are also process-related issues, followed by permitting. So in the last 12 months, our teams have overcome a lot of these difficulties and challenges. We are eventually getting to the last stage.
TaiyangNews: So you followed the course of cell technology and module manufacturing. A lot has also changed over the last few years, especially on the cell side of things. Can you talk a little bit about the cell technologies that ES Foundry is going to implement?
Alex Zhu: We want to start with what is pretty standard, which is PERC based on M10. It is a well-proven technology in the industry with a stable process and a wide process window. So, PERC is our focus for now.
TaiyangNews: So, the strategy is to start here in the US and cater to all these module manufacturers that are coming online in the US?
Alex Zhu: Yes. We are ES Foundry; the ‘Foundry’ here means we do the OEM manufacturing for other companies. We choose cells because they are the key component of solar and play a vital role in domestic content requirements. This will eventually enable all our customers in the module segment to provide domestic content to the developers and project owners to have the additional 10% tax credit under ITC. Since I am from a semiconductor background, the strategy also fits well.
TaiyangNews: Just talk about your company and your background. Can you reveal a little bit about who your investors are and where they’re coming from?
Alex Zhu: Yes, we are well covered on the capital front; we have international capital investments from private equity firms.
TaiyangNews: Thank you for the interview.