Plans to build a solar manufacturing plant were unveiled in February of this year by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, although no details regarding the manufacturing of wafer was given at the time.
Since the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the solar industry has seen nearly US$19 billion in private investment, while advanced manufacturing tax credits have led tax credit transfer deals in the third quarter of 2024.
However, the majority of capacity announcements made since 2022 were for modules and solar cells, with very few announcements regarding ingots and wafers. Korean-owned solar manufacturer Hanwha Qcells’ vertically-integrated 3.3GW plant in Georgia – which includes production from ingots to modules – is one such US-based facility under development.
Other prominent ingot and wafer projects come from German-based solar wafer producer NexWafe and from Norwegian solar manufacturer NorSun. NexWafe explores the possibility of building 6GW of annual nameplate capacity in the US, while NorSun plans to build a 5GW ingot and wafer plant in Oklahoma.
The Corning wafer plant announcement comes on the heels of the US Department of Treasury including a 25% tax credit for solar ingots and wafers, which also finalised the rules for the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit in the same week.
The inclusion of the 25% tax credit for ingots and wafers, as well as Corning’s plan to build a wafer plant in the US, will give a boost to the upstream supply chain in the US, as the domestic manufacturing industry faces an imbalance of announced capacity between solar cells and modules against ingots and wafers.
PV Tech reached out to Corning regarding the wafer manufacturing plant, as scarce details have been unveiled so far.
Hemlock Semiconductor to build new polysilicon plant
Another development from Corning last week came from its subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC), which received funding from the US Department of Commerce (DOC). HSC has signed a non-bidding preliminary memorandum of terms with the DOC to receive up to US$325 million in funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to “solidify US leadership in semiconductor-grade polysilicon production”.
The funding would support the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Michigan at the existing site of HSC in Hemlock. It would be dedicated to the production and purification of hyper-pure semiconductor-grade polysilicon and create nearly 180 manufacturing jobs.
“Polysilicon is the bedrock of semiconductors, and it’s important we have a reliable source of this material to manufacture the chips that help support our economic and national security,” said US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo. “Because of the Biden-Harris administration’s CHIPS and Science Act, we are proposing to invest up and down the semiconductor supply chain and support domestic materials suppliers, like HSC, that are helping drive America’s semiconductor manufacturing resurgence and technological leadership – and creating quality jobs all over the country in the process.”
No details regarding the annual nameplate capacity nor the timeline for its construction and operational launch have been disclosed so far.
