Diamond Foundry is planning to open its second lab-grown diamond production facility in Trujillo, Spain, which is located in the country’s Extremadura region.
The 322,000-square-foot factory is due to start producing single-crystal diamond chips in 2024, with total production eventually ramping up to 10 million cts. While the plant will focus on producing industrial diamonds that can be used for semiconductors, it will also create traditional lab-grown diamonds suitable for jewelry.
The venture’s price tag is estimated at 740 million euros, or $868 million. Around 40% of that funding will be provided by the company itself, while the remaining 60% will come from “public and private financing and from various existing European subsidies,” according to Spanish newspaper El País.
The company says the factory will be one of the first industrial projects in the world powered entirely by solar electricity, provided by a nearby 120-megawatt, 700-acre solar farm supported by battery storage. The farm will be built in partnership with Spain’s leading solar-power provider, Powen.
“Solar energy is abundant in the Extremadura region in Spain,” Diamond Foundry stated in a company blog post, “and given our commitment to sustainable production, we are interested in proving that solar can work at industrial scale in a self-contained way.”
In 2020, the company opened its first “megacarat” facility in Wenatchee, Wash., fueled by renewable hydropower. Diamond Foundry plans to scale up its diamond production there too, and it says it’s identified additional sites for expansion in the region.
Diamond Foundry’s Trujillo facility will initially employ 300 people, but press reports say that it could employ as many as 650 people once it reaches its full capacity.
Top: An image of the Extremadura region in Spain (photos courtesy of Diamond Foundry)
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