U.S. solar firm Suniva will rejuvenate its cell production facility in Georgia next year, leveraging the incentives provided by President Joe Biden's signature climate legislation, stated Suniva's president, Matt Card, in a conversation with Reuters.
The move by Suniva follows in the wake of last year's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which offers subsidies for homegrown production of clean energy equipment. Suniva is among the companies that are escalating their U.S. solar production commitments.
In a statement to Reuters, Card expressed, “The U.S. market is ripe for solar cell success. We're making a significant re-entry into the market in rapid time.”
This development is a significant turnaround for Suniva, which had declared bankruptcy six years prior and sought trade protections against low-cost imports, predominantly from China.
The company has announced that by next spring, solar cell production, the essential components for solar panels, will commence at its Norcross, Georgia plant.
Starting with a capacity to produce 1 gigawatt annually, equivalent to powering approximately 173,000 households, Suniva plans to further increase its output. This initial phase is projected to offer up to 240 new employment opportunities.
Suniva's president also mentioned being in “final discussions” with several potential clients, aiming to secure most of its production contracts even before the facility's official opening.
Earlier this year, the company secured a $110 million financing commitment from Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC) for its expansion endeavors. Notably, OIC also pledged capital to Canadian solar producer Heliene for establishing a new U.S. cell and panel facility in Minnesota.
Since its emergence from bankruptcy in 2019, Suniva has been under the ownership of the New York-based investment company, Lion Point Capital.
While tariffs initiated by the Trump administration in 2018 were criticized by solar project developers for hampering the industry's growth, Card believes that the tariffs have bolstered U.S. panel production in the past half-decade.
However, Card emphasized that it's the IRA subsidies that truly provided the impetus for Suniva's re-entry into solar cell manufacturing. Facilities utilizing panels with domestically-produced cells can now avail a 10% IRA tax incentive on the costs for using U.S.-made equipment, which comes in addition to a 30% tax benefit for renewable energy projects.
With the current scarcity of U.S.-manufactured solar cells, companies like Suniva emphasize the importance of domestic production, especially in an era dominated by Chinese-made goods.
Highlighting the importance of the IRA, White House senior advisor on clean energy policy, John Podesta, remarked, “The Inflation Reduction Act has been instrumental in penning a fresh narrative for the U.S. solar sector. Under Biden's economic approach, we're witnessing the revival of plants that shut down during the previous administration.”
Additionally, international energy giants, including Italy's Enel and South Korea's Hanwha, have recently disclosed their intentions to inaugurate solar cell production facilities in the U.S.
