A highly regarded and international solar cell manufacturing company has announced plans to upgrade an existing facility in north Colorado Springs for production purposes.
Based in the town of Thun, Switzerland, the company Meyer Burger produces solar cells and modules, as well as arrays and panels.
Founded in 1953 as a maker of watch stone processing machines, the company enjoys annual revenue in excess of $100 million, and has long had sales offices in Asia, Europe, and the United States, among other places.
Two years ago, Meyer Burger announced that it was building a new solar manufacturing center in Goodyear, Arizona, a facility capable of putting out up to 1 gigawatt of solar panels a year.
That project was delayed until federal solar manufacturing tax credits could be made available. In correspondence with the Internal Revenue Service, the company said its plant will be the “single largest solar manufacturing facility in the world when completed in 2024.”
According to plans, Meyer Burger’s new Colorado Springs location will be tasked with making and supplying cells for the Arizona production facility.
In a statement, Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation, said the company’s Colorado Springs facilities will be “Meyer Burger’s first site in the Western Hemisphere to manufacture the chips and wafers that power cutting-edge solar technology.”
What is being called a “high performance solar cell manufacturing facility,” will see production underway towards the final three months of 2024 after Meyer Burger has repurposed a former 639,000-square-foot semiconductor fabrication plant located at 1615 Garden of the Gods Road.
The Colorado Springs project has been considerably helped along by up to $90 million in tax credits, among other incentives, by both the City of Colorado Springs and the State of Colorado.
Meyer Burger’s advanced technology has seen it applying diamond wire cutting procedures in the solar industry. According to the publication PV Magazine, in using such procedures, Meyer Burger was “taking advantage of technology it had previously used in its watch manufacturing business.”
By Garry Boulard
