Meyer Burger announced today that it is suspending the planned construction of a silicon solar cell manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, because it is “no longer financially viable for the company.”
The Swiss technology company first announced plans for a cell factory in July 2023. The 2 GW operations at a former Intel semiconductor plant would support its solar panel assembly plant in Goodyear, Arizona, which officially began production in June. Instead, Meyer Burger said its existing cell manufacturing facility in Thalheim, Germany, will remain fully operational and will remain the company’s primary supplier of solar cells.
“Under current market conditions, these are [German] solar cells are the most economical option for supplying module production in Goodyear,” the company said in a press release.
Meyer Burger specializes in heterojunction technology (HJT), a combination of crystalline silicon and thin film of amorphous silicon. The company to block its German solar panel manufacturing facility earlier this year following the collapse of the European panel manufacturing market.
Meyer Burger also announced today that it will not scale its solar panel assembly plant in Arizona beyond 1.4 GW, but noted that the building could support 2 GW or more.