A solar cell manufacturing facility in Georgia, which closed a few years ago, is making a comeback. Suniva, a solar manufacturing company, has announced its plans to reopen a plant in Norcross, Georgia, which had been shut down in 2017 due to financial difficulties.
This facility was part of a larger closure that also included a plant in Michigan. Back then, Suniva had requested the Trump Administration to impose tariffs on foreign-made solar panels to reduce competition from cheaper imports, a move that was successful but still insufficient to restart production.
The company is the latest to commit to new U.S. solar production capacity since passage last year of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which subsidizes domestic manufacturing of clean energy equipment. The turning point for Suniva appears to be the Inflation Reduction Act.
The company believes that the subsidies available to clean energy component manufacturers will provide the necessary support for the facility’s revival. Customers opting for domestically produced solar cells can benefit from a tax credit, which is complemented by significant tax incentives for the manufacturers themselves.
Projects using panels containing domestically-produced cells will be able to qualify for an IRA tax credit worth 10% of a facility’s cost for using American-made equipment. That “bonus” would be on top of a 30% tax credit for renewable energy facilities.
According to Reuters, there is currently no supply of U.S.-made solar cells, and Suniva sees the “Made in America” incentives as crucial for establishing a domestic supply of products that are predominantly manufactured in China.
Suniva’s president, Matt Card, has stated that the company has secured funding for its expansion, which is expected to generate 240 jobs. Card is enthusiastic about the rapid progress and scale of this upcoming project, with plans to open the plant in the spring of 2024. Card is optimistic and shares his own bullish sentiment that “Solar cells can succeed in this market.”
“Solar cells can succeed in this market. We’re proving that and we’re coming back in a major way very, very quickly,” Matt Card, Suniva’s president, told Reuters last week.
Suniva will begin producing solar cells, the building blocks of solar panels, at its Norcross, Georgia, facility in the spring of next year, the company said.
It will have an initial production capacity of 1 gigawatt per year, enough to power about 173,000 homes, with plans to expand. The factory’s first phase will create up to 240 jobs.
Card said Suniva is in “advanced negotiations” with several potential customers and expects to have most of its supply contracted before the factory opens next year.
The company received a $110 million financing commitment from New York investment fund Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC) earlier this year for its expansion. OIC also committed capital this year to Canadian solar manufacturer Heliene for a new U.S. cell and panel factory in Minnesota.
Suniva has been owned by New York investment firm Lion Point Capital since it exited bankruptcy in 2019.
“This announcement shows the Inflation Reduction Act’s power in writing a new chapter for the American solar industry,” said John Podesta, a White House senior advisor on clean energy policy. “After closing during the last administration, Bidenomics is bringing this plant back to life.”
Italy’s Enel (ENEI.MI) and South Korea’s Hanwha (000880.KS) have also announced plans to set up solar cell manufacturing in the U.S. in recent months.
Source: Reuters
