ES Foundry Joins MIT's Initiative for New Manufacturing

ES Foundry, an American company advancing U.S. solar by onshoring crystalline solar cell production, announced it is joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM) and committing $1.5 million over three years to the initiative as part of a new collaboration focused on strengthening U.S. manufacturing.

This collaboration will accelerate ES Foundry's research into AI-driven efficiencies and advanced operating models in an effort to ensure U.S. manufacturing remains globally competitive.

For ES Foundry, the collaboration comes at an important point in the company's growth. In July, the company completed a 2 gigawatt (GW) expansion of its Greenwood, South Carolina, factory, bringing total annual solar cell manufacturing capacity to 3 GW and supporting more than 400 advanced manufacturing jobs.

With that capacity now in place, ES Foundry is looking beyond manufacturing scale alone to the technologies, workforce, and operating practices that will determine whether U.S. solar manufacturing can compete over the long term.

"We have made a significant investment in bringing solar cell manufacturing back to the United States. This commitment to MIT's Initiative for New Manufacturing is an investment in making that manufacturing stronger," said Alex Zhu, CEO of ES Foundry. "We are operating at commercial scale every day, which gives us a very practical view of where technology, automation and workforce development can make a difference. Working with MIT gives us an opportunity to research solutions to manufacturing challenges and develop new ideas and approaches."

Solar cells remain a critical gap in the domestic photovoltaic supply chain. While U.S. module manufacturing capacity has expanded significantly, much of the industry continues to depend on imported cells. ES Foundry was established to help change that equation by producing high-performance crystalline solar cells in the United States.

Its Greenwood facility produces bifacial PERC solar cells for utility-scale, commercial and community solar applications. The recently completed expansion gives ES Foundry a 3 GW operating platform where improvements in production technology, automation, process control, workforce skills and factory efficiency can be applied at commercial scale.

ES Foundry's $1.5 million commitment will support its engagement with INM and the initiative's broader work to address challenges facing modern manufacturers. Through INM, ES Foundry will work with MIT faculty, researchers and students as well as manufacturers from other industries on topics including artificial intelligence on the factory floor, automated systems, cybersecurity, digital twins, continuous innovation and workforce development.