Ebon Solar CEO: Construction could begin on massive Mesa del Sol facility in Q4 of this year
Matthew Narvaiz, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
7 min read
Aug. 16—Judy Cai, the CEO of the newly established U.S.-based Ebon Solar, said when the company was looking for space, it took into account a variety of factors, including labor quality and availability, the local business climate and a risk profile that was basically free of natural disasters.
In New Mexico, and particularly in Albuquerque's Mesa del Sol, the company found just that.
Earlier this month, Ebon Solar, which is getting advanced chip technology and financial resources from Singapore-based blockchain and fintech company Ebang International Holdings Inc., announced its plans to invest $942 million into an expansion at Mesa del Sol, a fast-growing area of the city for expanding businesses.
If all goes to plan, Ebon's expansion will be massive in scale with some 900 new hires for an 834,000-square-foot factory, where the company plans to manufacture solar cells.
The Journal, shortly after Ebon's joint announcement with the Governor's Office, sat down with Cai to talk about what Ebon Solar is, what it plans to do, when the company expects construction to commence and what went into choosing Albuquerque for its very first manufacturing facility.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I know Ebon Solar is a rather new company. I believe your team filed a trademark last month. What can you tell me about Ebon?
"Well, the best way to describe it is Ebon Solar, the newly established U.S. company, is backed by — whether it's financial (or) their technology — by similar investors of Ebang. I want to emphasize here (that) we're a newly established U.S. company. There's a little story there. ... There are increasing amounts of solar industry new businesses coming up. We try to distinguish (ourselves) with a trademark that can truly reflect who we are, what we want to do. I joined the company a couple months ago, so I haven't been with the business for long. ...But we try to look at every detail. I want this company to be built solid from (the) foundation, including the trademark."
I want to talk about the site selection process for Ebon. When you were thinking about this expansion, how many states were you looking at? What was it Ebon was looking for in terms of an expansion? And how did Mesa del Sol fit that profile?
"This can get a little technical in terms of selection. So, I can tell you, a lot of work. A lot of work. Well before I joined the company, the process had started. We had used the nationally recognized team, Deloitte, to be the adviser, the consultant, to lead us, help us to do the site selection.
After the initial preliminary screening we focused on five, probably six states with over 20 candidates for the land, different parcels in different states. We have a scoring system where we actually rank each location. ... But from all the scorecards for the locations we look at, there are some criteria we set up.
We look at the labor quality and availability. So that takes some percentage. We assign a percentage to this criteria and list all the locations, and we look at the real estate and infrastructure. We also look at the business climate — whether this is a friendly place for you to do business or not. We also looked at the risk profile. Risk profile is important for us. Do you have natural disasters? Is there a huge risk for that? I was told when I was in Albuquerque that you guys barely experience natural disasters, so I think New Mexico got the very top score.
We talk about access, transportation, logistics — because eventually you have goods shipped out; you have supplies coming in. We talk about the quality of life. You're going to have employees here — you want to attract talent and keep them here. We talked about the permitting environment, which is very essential to us because we want to move fast. The process to get permits, how complicated it is, how much time it takes. So, is it friendly?
In general, we put all this together and assign scores to over 20 (sites) and then screen them down to top 5, screen them down to top 3. And I think the final decision was made during my trip to Albuquerque in June."
Tell me about that. What was that experience like for you coming here to Albuquerque in June and getting a feel for the city? How did that experience come into play in terms of ultimately choosing Albuquerque for this expansion?
"If I want to use one word to describe my feeling — sincere. I feel very sincere, very welcomed. In my three-day schedule, I was totally welcomed by different stakeholders, whether (it was) by the developers — who's going to have a purchase-and-sale agreement with us — or by different business partners. From the business side, I met PNM, the gas company, city water department, mayor, city manager, permit department.
Going back to those criteria, this gave me a very (personal) feeling about how much support you can get. I also met the workforce partners, which apparently is going to have a lot of interaction down the road. (We met with) CNM, university, as well as discussed with (Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance) about what other companies are doing.
I heard some wonderful stories about (how New Mexico has the) big three labs there, (and) how they develop this labor force. The city (and) the state offers a type of program to reimburse the employer for the cost to give their employees training. So all of these great stories. ...We just feel this is the right place to come. ... You want to feel you belong here. It's a huge investment. You want to make sure you feel right. So, I think that trip absolutely helped us make the decision."
Tell me about the workforce needs of Ebon with this expansion.
"Ultimately, this is going to become a manufacturing facility with technology. We wouldn't call us just a purely intense manufacturing plan because there is robust technology sitting behind this. I would say, for one, for this manufacturer to be able to successfully produce what you need, of course you need technical. To say technical is to say you need engineers, ... quality engineers. You need process design engineers who understand. You need factory workers.
And also, you need a management team. ... You probably have already seen our website — we're trying to find the first position, HR manager, because to begin to recruit ... 900 people on site, I need a great HR team. I need a risk management team. I need a business development team eventually to build up all these business relationships and eventually be able to sell the product to our customers."
Something that wasn't mentioned by your company was when your team plans to break ground. I know there are a lot of things that have to unravel before that happens, but are there any estimates on your end for when construction will start?
"I can give you estimates, but, honestly, this is contingent upon a few major factors, including (that) we need to finalize the land purchase agreement. We have a PSA in place, but we need to perform our due diligence and get that closed. We're also (waiting on) the county approval on the industrial revenue bond (application), which is already on the agenda. ...
But the construction, we're hoping to have a groundbreaking during Q4 — Q4 of this year. Time is the biggest challenge here because we want to move fast. But you need to move steadily as well, not only fast. ...
This is all for solar cell manufacturing. But there's different capacities. So for the first phase, our plan is to develop a 1-gigawatt facility, and then for phase two is going to be 3.5 GW."
