New Mexico lawmakers have approved up to US$942 million in taxable Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs) to support the development of Ebon Solar’s proposed Apollo cell manufacturing facility in the US state.
IRBs are a form of financing designed for use in the promotion of new businesses, encouraging employment or expanding the tax base of a community, in New Mexico. US-headquartered Ebon Solar plans to use the bonds to build a solar cell manufacturing facility in the Mesa del Sol industrial development area in Bernalillo County, in central New Mexico, south of the state capital of Santa Fe.
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Construction will be further supported by a US$10 million commitment from the New Mexico Economic Development Department (NMEDD), in the form of Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) funds, grants provided by the state government to support local businesses. The city of Albuquerque, the state’s largest, will provide an additional US$1 million in LEDA finance.
“We are excited to support Ebon Solar with the approval of their Industrial Revenue Bonds application,” said District 2 commissioner Steven Michael Quezada. “This project represents the type of advanced renewable energy manufacturing I want in my district, Bernalillo County, and our state. Bringing over 900 new jobs to central New Mexico is a significant win for our region.”
Ebon Solar first announced plans for the project in August, and this will be the company’s first involvement in the solar sector. While it has not detailed the technical specifications of its cells, the company is a subsidiary of advanced application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip and silicon manufacturer Ebang International, which is based in Singapore, and Ebon Solar’s website claims it will “leverage” the experience of its parent organisation.
The news follows a number of developments in New Mexico’s downstream solar sector, with Enlight and D. E. Shaw commissioning solar-plus-storage projects in the state in the last two months. Last year, Array Technologies announced plans to build a second tracker manufacturing plant in the state, and the advancement of Ebon Solar’s Apollo project will be of benefit to the New Mexican manufacturing industry.
