Suniva, a U.S. solar manufacturer headquartered in Atlanta, said on Tuesday it will invest $350 million to construct a solar cell factory in Laurens County, South Carolina, with production set to begin in early 2027 and the facility expected to open in the second quarter of 2027.
The company described the project as a substantial expansion of domestic solar cell production capacity. Solar cells are the essential components of solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity. Suniva plans to scale its manufacturing capacity from its current 1 GW to 5.5 GW once the new plant is fully operational.
Suniva said the expansion will create more than 550 jobs at the South Carolina site. The company attributed the strong market interest in American-made modules and components to new U.S. policies that limit federal clean energy tax credits for Chinese-owned factories and for companies that use products from such factories.
In discussing the move, Suniva President Matt Card noted the limited domestic supply of solar cells, saying: "When it comes to solar cells, there is a dearth of those in the U.S. We’ve had a constant push from the market for more and more and more and more, and that demand has been so high that it exceeded what we could do at our current facility." The company also indicated, without providing further details, that a substantial portion of the factory’s output through 2030 has already been pre-sold.
Industry figures cited by the Solar Energy Industries Association show the United States currently has about 3.2 GW of total solar cell capacity while domestic module capacity stands at roughly 60 GW. Those numbers underline that, today, most of the solar cells used by U.S. module manufacturers are imported.
Other firms that either operate or plan to develop domestic cell capacity include privately held ES Foundry in South Carolina, Hanwha Corp’s Qcells in Georgia, T1 Energy in Texas and Canadian Solar in Indiana.
The planned Suniva facility represents a notable increase in U.S. silicon-based solar cell production capacity, and the company highlighted that its commercial production of silicon-based cells resumed in the United States in 2024 after a pause in industry production tied to competition from low-priced imports from Asia.
While Suniva declined to disclose specific details about the pre-sold volumes, the company emphasized that the new plant is intended to bridge part of the gap between domestic cell production and the larger module manufacturing footprint in the United States.
What this means for markets and manufacturing
The investment enlarges Suniva’s capacity and addresses an acknowledged shortfall in U.S. solar cell production. It also aligns with policy-driven demand for American-made solar components. The expansion will have implications for the solar manufacturing supply chain, employment in the region, and the distribution of domestic module production inputs.