Lopez group inks deal with Korean firm for solar wafer project

First Philippine Electric Corp. or First Philec, the electronics arm of the Lopez Group of Companies, has forged a joint venture with Korean firm Nexolon Co. Ltd. to build a 400-megawatt, solar wafer-slicing facility in Batangas. Scheduled to take off in the fourth quarter, the joint venture called First Philec Nexolon has patterned itself after a similar arrangement with an American firm’s subsidiary. First Philec president Arthur de Guia told reporters on Friday that Nexolon wanted a tie-up similar to that with SunPower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd., a subsidiary of the US-based SunPower Corp. “[Nexolon wants] to ramp up their solar production," De Guia said, explaining that First Philec will invest about $100 million for the 3.5-hectare wafer-slicing facility. The Lopez group’s earlier joint venture with SunPower, called the First Philec Solar Corp., produced the first silicon wafer-slicing company in the Philippines. With the Lopez group owning 80 percent and SunPower taking hold of the remaining 20, First Philec Solar includes a 12,700-square-meter facility in Batangas that aims to support about 720 MW of solar energy by producing 240 million wafers annually. — PE/JE, GMA News