Spain Advances Photovoltaic Manufacturing Rebuild: 20GW Silicon Wafer Project Planned to Start Production in 2029

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Spain's photovoltaic manufacturing industry is building a new pipeline of expansion projects, among which Sunwafe's planned 20GW ingot and silicon wafer factory has obtained project land approval and received nearly €200 million in support from the Spanish government. According to the current plan, a final investment decision will be made and construction will commence in 2027, with commercial operations starting in early 2029. At full capacity, the facility is expected to produce approximately 2.5 billion silicon wafers annually.

The Sunwafe project is located in Asturias, covering approximately 30 hectares, with Spanish engineering company Tresca serving as the owner's engineer and responsible for basic design, detailed design, and project management. The factory is designed with an annual production capacity of 20GW, covering the ingot and silicon wafer segments of the photovoltaic industry chain, with a planned workforce of up to approximately 2,600 jobs. Sunwafe estimates that full capacity could correspond to about 50% of Europe's annual silicon wafer demand in 2030. The project has completed site approval, but financing, industrial partnerships, and the final investment decision remain key milestones before entering the full construction phase.

The European photovoltaic manufacturing system in which this project operates still exhibits significant upstream-downstream capacity gaps. The latest supply chain statistics show that Europe's existing photovoltaic module manufacturing capacity is approximately 24.2GW, cell capacity approximately 5.3GW, and silicon wafer capacity approximately 1.2GW; including planned projects, module, cell, and silicon wafer capacity could increase to approximately 88.2GW, 65.2GW, and 46.7GW respectively by 2027–2030. At this stage, a large portion of new capacity remains in the planning or construction preparation phase, and whether it translates into actual production capacity will depend on financing, policy support, and market demand.

In addition to Sunwafe, several other photovoltaic manufacturing projects in Spain are at various stages of advancement. Solar Organic Centro España is advancing a photovoltaic module and energy storage manufacturing base in Socuéllamos, Castilla-La Mancha, which has been designated as a priority project by the local government, with further plans for silicon wafer manufacturing and third-generation semiconductor industry segments. The company previously proposed a maximum photovoltaic module capacity of 10GW, but currently published government documents mainly confirm that the project is undergoing administrative procedures, and it has not yet been confirmed that the 10GW capacity has entered the construction phase.

Another photovoltaic manufacturing initiative in Asturias comes from Iberdrola and Exiom. The two companies are advancing a 500MW annual photovoltaic module factory in Langreo, with a planned investment of €20 million and the creation of 115 direct jobs. The first batch of production equipment, including laminators, has arrived at the project site. The project involves retrofitting existing industrial facilities to build the production line, positioning it differently from Sunwafe, which enters the upstream segment through ingots and silicon wafers.

However, when assessing Spain's photovoltaic manufacturing project pipeline for 2030, a distinction must be made between planned capacity and confirmed capacity. Some early-stage projects have remained in the pipeline for an extended period without entering substantial construction. Greenland previously proposed building a 5GW vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturing base, but the project ultimately failed to materialize; Silicon Valen's early public plan involved an investment of €475 million to create approximately 1.2GW of annual capacity, but there is currently insufficient new progress to support counting it as 5GW of confirmed capacity under construction. Therefore, the new projects with clearer execution milestones at this stage are mainly concentrated in those that have secured public funding, obtained sites, or advanced through administrative processes.

On the policy front, further support is being provided for photovoltaic manufacturing projects. The EU's Net-Zero Industry Act proposes that by 2030, the EU's manufacturing capacity for net-zero technologies should reach a benchmark of at least 40% of the relevant technology's annual deployment needs, and identifies photovoltaic cells, silicon wafers, and ingots—segments where current manufacturing capacity is insufficient—as priority areas. Spain has previously allocated nearly €300 million through its renewable energy industry chain support program to 34 manufacturing projects, of which 7 are photovoltaic manufacturing projects, with Sunwafe receiving close to €200 million of that funding.

As projects such as Sunwafe advance toward final investment decisions and the construction phase, Spain's photovoltaic manufacturing landscape is beginning to extend from module assembly to upstream segments such as ingots and silicon wafers. However, planned capacity currently significantly exceeds actual production capacity already established. Over the next two to three years, the pace of project financial close, factory construction, equipment procurement, and production line commissioning will determine how much effective capacity this round of photovoltaic manufacturing expansion ultimately delivers.