Founded by InnoEnergy and backed by a €200 million grant from the Spanish government, the company prepares to address a critical gap in the rebirth of Europe’s solar industry

Barcelona, Spain – April 28, 2026

Sunwafe has achieved several important milestones on its journey towards launching Europe’s first large-scale silicon ingot and wafer manufacturing plant. In March, the company secured approval from regional authorities for a 30-hectare greenfield site in Asturias, marking an important first step towards the construction and industrial deployment phase.

To steer this ambitious venture on its path towards its commercial operation date planned for early 2029, experienced founder and industry executive Michael Pinto has been appointed CEO, effective 2 March. Under Michael’s leadership, Sunwafe is now prepared to move into execution stage on several critical fronts, including solidifying its industrial partnerships, establishing a leadership team, raising capital and planning the company’s operational footprint in Spain.

The company has reinforced its industrial plan through a strategic partnership with Tresca, a Spanish engineering firm with 25 years of experience in leading complex industrial infrastructure projects across 20 countries. Tresca will act as the owner’s engineer, assuming full responsibility for project management, as well as all basic design and detailed engineering plans, for the development of Sunwafe’s 20 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing facility in Asturias, Spain.  

Sunwafe was initiated by InnoEnergy in 2024 with the aim of establishing in Europe a globally competitive manufacturer of silicon wafers.  The creation of Sunwafe was prompted by a fundamental shift in Europe’s industrial and geopolitical landscape. With more than 90% of global wafer production currently concentrated in Asia, Europe faces a critical dependency in a strategically vital segment of the clean energy value chain. Addressing this gap requires not only financial capital, but also a systemic approach to building new industrial champions. This is at the core of InnoEnergy’s investment thesis: identifying structural market gaps and creating companies from the ground up together with strategic partners across industry, finance, and technology. Since its inception, InnoEnergy has supported more than 540 companies, including four industrial unicorns, which together have raised over €34 billion, created more than 47,000 jobs, and are projected to generate €110 billion in revenues by 2030. Sunwafe builds on this track record, aiming to re-establish a resilient and competitive wafer manufacturing base in Europe.

“Clearly, this is a defining moment for Europe and for the global energy transition. As Europeans, we must ask ourselves what energy security truly means and what role we want clean energy to play in our shared future. By carefully constructing win-win agreements with select strategic partners in Asia, Sunwafe is committed to building a globally competitive advanced manufacturing platform that successfully reshores wafer production as a core industrial capability here in Europe.” Michael Pinto, CEO of Sunwafe.

In 2025, Sunwafe was awarded a €200 million non-refundable grant by the Spanish government (Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – PRTR)under the RENOVAL program for renewable energy value chains, supported by the European Union’s Next Generation EU funds – underscoring the project’s strategic relevance for Spain and Europe.

Collectively, these developments allow Sunwafe to begin executing its business plan with confidence, as the company targets an annual production capacity of 2.5 billion silicon wafers, equivalent to 20 GW and up to 50% of Europe’s projected annual wafer demand by 2030.  Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, final investment decision will be reached by February 2027.with the start of commercial operations targeted for early 2029. At full capacity, the project is expected to create up to 2,600 jobs.

“Sunwafe tackles one of the most critical missing links in Europe’s photovoltaic value chain. Industrial projects of this scale only succeed when you take a systemic approach – with the right industrial, financial, and technology partners in place from the outset.” said Sébastien Clerc, CEO of InnoEnergy.

By manufacturing silicon ingots and wafers at industrial scale, Sunwafe enables a new generation of high-performance, traceable, low-carbon PV cells and modules – supporting European and global manufacturers while anchoring industrial value creation in Europe.

Short bio Michael Pinto

Michael Pinto brings to Sunwafe over 25 years of international management experience, including senior leadership roles at GE, Dow and several clean-tech ventures. Michael joins Sunwafe from deep-tech scale-up, Circular Materials, where he served as Managing Director, and prior to that as CEO and cofounder of Cleanwatts, a distributed solar power and energy management software pioneer.