Aug. 18—A year after making one of the state's largest expansion announcements, Maxeon Solar Technologies officials are hoping for a construction start in Q4 of this year following delays that have pushed the project's start date back several months.
A company spokesman, Forrest Monroy, wrote to the Journal in an email late last month that Maxeon and project partners are "actively managing the multifaceted process for creating a new factory from an open field."
"That work is ongoing, and we continue to make progress on the site, including the completion of a number of surveys, geotechnical investigation, certain permit reviews, and required architectural review submissions, and we've also completed the construction air permit," Monroy wrote.
Monroy said Maxeon completed biological, cultural and Phase I environmental site assessments that were collected as part of a National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, submission to the U.S. Department of Energy. He said the DOE completed a NEPA determination, "which is a prerequisite to construction."
"Maxeon also commissioned a geotechnical investigation, which provides information about the soil conditions, which is necessary to design the foundations of each major structure," Monroy added.
But Monroy said the financing process for the project is still underway — a holdup for Maxeon's plan to build a 1.9-million-square-foot facility at Mesa del Sol, where it will hire some 1,800 workers at full capacity.
The delay is a turnaround from when officials estimated construction would start — governor's office and company officials said last August they hoped to break ground in the first quarter of 2024, with factory ramp-up to begin in 2025.
Monroy said in his email that with the delay, the company hopes for manufacturing to begin at the facility in the first quarter of 2026.
Tim Walsh, a city of Albuquerque Planning Department spokesman, said the department's Building Safety Division hasn't received building permit submittals from Maxeon, a precursor to construction.
"They have submitted to our Development Facilitation Team for Site Plan review, but the Site Plan is still pending," Walsh wrote in an email.
Mark Roper, interim secretary for the state Economic Development Department, said he believes Maxeon's "plan was a little overly aggressive and hopeful," adding that "It's not something you can do overnight."
He said a likely holdup aside from permitting is the company's plan to get the approval of a DOE loan, Roper said, which could come sometime in October or November.