A British solar company has set its sights on building a billion-dollar photovoltaic manufacturing facility in Montreal, aiming to supply both Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuebec offers an extraordinary concentration of solar and clean energy R&D talent, world-class universities, abundant natural resources\u2014from quartz to silicon and aluminium\u2014that are integral to solar cell and panel production,\u201d William Samman, head of communications for Awendio Solaris, told The Energy Mix. It\u2019s a location that \u201csits at the crossroads of sea and land routes,\u201d right at the border of the company\u2019s largest market, the U.S., which hosts most of its clients and key parts of its supply chain, he added.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2023, the United Kingdom-based solar manufacturer says on its website it is planning the \u201clargest solar silicon PV hub\u201d in the U.S. and Canada, with plans to expand in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.<\/p>\n
The company announced<\/a> in December that it intends to invest as much as $1 billion to develop a solar cell and module manufacturing facility and research centre in East Montreal, with a specific location still to be determined. The planned facility would make solar cells and assemble panels, and would be capable of delivering up to 2,500 megawatts of production capacity in its first phase. Awendio Solaris plans to scale that capacity to 5,000 megawatts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s massive,\u201d Awendio Solaris CEO Marc Deschamps told<\/a> the Financial Times. \u201cIt is the equivalent of 20 Maersk containers full of panels, flat-pack panels, coming out every day.\u201d<\/p>\n