US-based solar manufacturers 1366 Technologies and Hunt Perovskite Technologies have announced a merger to form CubicPV.

The new firm is in advanced stages of talks for partnership with a local Indian firm and plans to set up a two GW solar wafer and cell manufacturing unit with an investment of around USD 300-350 million under the Central government's production-linked incentive scheme.

While CubicPV will set up and control the wafer and cell manufacturing parts of the production chain, the local partner will handle module assembly from the cells and marketing in the country.

CubicPV will utilise 1366 Technologies' trademark Direct Wafer process which can produce wafers cheaply and quickly directly from molten silicon instead of ingots.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), First Solar and Hunt Energy Enterprises are the three top shareholders in CubicPV.