Welcome to our Bitterfeld Facility: transforming the Solar Valley
At our cutting-edge facility in Bitterfeld, Germany, we are proud to be part of a thriving ecosystem that revolves around innovation, sustainability, and revitalizing the solar industry.
Proximity to industry giants like Evonik allows us to create a locally integrated supply chain and proximity to customers enabling a circular economy which is both highly efficient and sustainable. By co-locating with an existing chemical plant we can reduce the time to market by two years.
We're building a state-of-the-art, fully automated facility that set new industry standards in both cost and energy efficiency. This landmark facility is a proof point of our commitment to innovation and sustainability. Our facility is designed to be efficient, cutting-edge, and environmentally responsible. With automation at its core, we are making sure that every process is optimized for productivity, precision, and sustainability.
The Solar Valley, once a thriving hub for solar technology, has seen its ups and downs. We are here to help breathe new life into this valley and resurrect the upstream supply chain.
In addition to contributing to the revival of the Solar Valley, we are committed to modernize Germany’s Solar Valley to a pre-eminent center of PV manufacturing with a vertically integrated supply chain from the chemical plant to module assembly. NexWafe’s revolutionary solar wafer manufacturing approach will be a cornerstone of the new Solar Valley.
At NexWafe's groundbreaking ceremony in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in October 2023, we welcomed and celebrated with 130 attendees, including the Chief Mayor of Bitterfeld-Wolden, prospective customers, and key suppliers and equipment partners. More than 40 NexWafe team members also attended to celebrate this wonderful milestone we've achieved together.
We'd like to thank Chemie Park Bitterfeld for their local support as both investor and infrastructure provider, as well as Group-IPS in Belgium for the engineering work, and BremerBau for the first phase of construction on our epitaxy facility.
The goal is to begin production for our first commercial facility in the second half of 2025, based on completion of our contemplated Series D fundraising in the first half of 2024. This financing will also support a US expansion and further R&D.
More specifically, NexWafe is building an initial 250 MW production line in Bitterfeld-Wolfen and will invest at least €70 million at the site and create approximately 90 jobs. However, the existing infrastructure in the Bitterfeld-Wolfen Chemical Park enables us to build up 3 GW/a of additional wafer production capacity. The investment amount for the 3 GW/a expansion stage would amount to around 300 million euros and create up to 500 jobs in the Bitterfeld-Wolfen area.
