US DOE announces $481.5m loan to SK Siltron CCS
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $544 million loan to SK Siltron CCS, LLC to expand American manufacturing of high-quality SiC wafers for electric vehicle (EV) power electronics.
The project — located at SK Siltron CSS facility in Bay City, Michigan — is expected to be among the top-five manufacturers of SiC wafers globally, boosting America’s manufacturing competitiveness.
This project is forecast to create up to 200 construction jobs in the build-out phase and up to 200 skilled, good-paying operations jobs at full production.
SK Siltron CSS sells directly to device manufacturers which make power electronics used across many industries, not just EVs and high-speed EV charging. Market demand is currently being driven by transportation, next generation cellular (i.e., 5G), artificial intelligence and cloud computing end uses. SiC is also becoming increasingly common in other mid to high voltage applications such as solar photovoltaic, inverters and DC converters, and industrial chargers and adapters.
The loan is offered through LPO’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program, which supports domestic manufacturing of advanced technology vehicles, qualifying components, and materials that improve fuel economy.
