Swiss solar manufacturer Meyer Burger has called an emergency general meeting to approve final funding for its Colorado and Arizona manufacturing plants, as the company looks to move its operations from Germany to the US.
This meeting, to be held on 18 March, will see a vote held on a rights issue that the company expects to generate around US$226.8-283.5 million (CHF200-250 million) through the issuance of new shares in the company. The company also announced a number of other potential financing opportunities for its sites in the US, including an export credit guarantee agreed with “a commercial bank”, and approved by the German government, that will generate up to US$95 million for the manufacturer.
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Meyer Burger announced the plan last month, which was motivated by a combination of a poor financial outlook for the European solar manufacturing sector and the presence of financial incentives for locating manufacturing in the US, such as the 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit.
The company is confident that US-based financial incentives will help secure additional funding for its US projects, with Meyer Burger estimating that compliance with the 45X regulations will generate an additional US$300 million in funding through tax credits, and expecting to secure a loan from the US Department of Energy to generate an additional US$200-250 million.
“The rights issue is an attractive proposal to our investors as they can invest into the highly attractive US business where we are positioned to have the potential to grow a profitable business,” said CEO Gunter Erfurt, explaining the rationale behind the shift in focus to the US market. “Furthermore, a clearer focus on our US business makes us independent of political decisions in Europe”.
The news will be encouraging for the company’s growing US division, with funds set to be used to complete cell manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Goodyear, Arizona. Earlier this year, the company delivered tools and equipment for the latter facility, and Meyer Burger expects the two factories, once in operation, to have a combined annual manufacturing capacity of 4GW.
However, Meyer Burger will also close its Freiburg manufacturing plant in Germany, as part of this move, which will do little to aid the faltering European manufacturing sector. While this facility has a lower annual production capacity than the proposed US factories, having launched with a production capacity of 0.4GW that was later expanded to 1GW, the EU’s Net Zero Industry Act has proposed a target of 30GW of annual solar manufacturing capacity in Europe by 2030.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, annual European manufacturing capacity was just 5.5GW in 2023, with just 4GW of new annual capacity already announced, meaning that Europe will need to add more than 20GW of new, as-yet-unannounced capacity over the next six years.