Semiconductor Reshoring: Benefits to PI Energy

There is a growing US policy drive to “reshore” important industries and fabrication back to the United States, reversing decades of offshoring. The semiconductor industry has been getting a lot of US Federal and State support for reshoring, with a half a dozen large-scale fabrication facilities being built and/or planned across the US.

Supply chain issues with semiconductors have led to reshoring efforts.

PI Energy’s breakthrough solar cell technology is an ultra-thin semiconductor layer of silicon. Our technology provides several advantages for US-based fabrication, including:

• Materials efficiency: 100 times less silicon than the majority of solar PV panels installed today.

• Manufacturing efficiency: our fabrication process uses 10 times less energy per gram of semiconductor than conventional solar PV.

Several agencies of the US Federal and State governments are increasingly backing semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. The US Commerce Department is starting efforts to support growth in semiconductor production. Recently, this tectonic shift has become evident to us, mostly as feedback that more resources are becoming available to our technical collaborators, contractors, and partners; even with new grants to cover some our planned efforts.

The increase in funding, awareness, and support benefits PI Energy, with more public funding and growing private sector interest in participating in the rebirth of US-based high technology manufacturing. PI Energy is leading innovation for solar PV, to start large-scale US fabrication of next-generation of solar modules, so we welcome more resources to make the future better.