After a successful second investment round, North American solar panel manufacturer Silfab Solar can now officially announce it is planning to open a third U.S. solar module production facility that will also include solar cell manufacturing.
Silfab has been featured in local news reports out of Fort Mill, South Carolina, as shopping a manufacturing site that could support 800 jobs outside Charlotte, North Carolina. The solar company had first expressed plans to start solar cell manufacturing over a year ago. Silfab’s new ELITE solar panels use a proprietary X-pattern technology on the cells, which would require in-house made cells.
Silfab today said it believes the third U.S. manufacturing facility will be fully operational in 2024 with an initial annual capacity of 1 GW of cells and 1.2 GW of solar panels.
“Domestic production of solar cells represents a strategic effort to further manage our supply chain and to apply our technical prowess from the ground up for a comprehensive manufacturing process,” said Paolo Maccario, Silfab CEO.
Canadian-headquartered Silfab operates twin 400-MW solar module plants in Washington. With this third manufacturing plant, the company should reach 2 GW of panel capacity in the United States.
The third plant is made possible by a $125 million investment from ARC Financial Corp.’s Energy Fund 9, which includes co-investments by Manulife Financial Corporation, Ontario Power Generation Inc. Pension Plan, CF Private Equity and BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice. ARC is an established energy-focused private equity fund manager.
“Silfab has grown more than 40% since ARC’s initial support. We are thankful for our collaborative relationship with ARC and with the Biden administration and its Inflation Reduction Act, both enabling us to accelerate our U.S. manufacturing strategy. Our growth means more solar jobs for America and reliable energy that customers will use to reduce both costs and their carbon footprint,” Maccario said.
Silfab is going to ruin the community of Fort Mill by its pollution of the air and extremely unsafe chemicals. They are also lairs by claiming they are considered light industrial when they are definitely heavy industrial. There are also two new schools that are being directly built behind the factory which we do not have time to evacuate if anything should go wrong. My son could be zoned for one of those schools. Would you want this in your community??? The residents of Fort Mill definitely do not !!! This is no where near good news!! Silfab belongs in a space that’s in the middle of no where (not near schools or other buildings or homes) on land that is zoned heavy industrial just like the other two solar plants in South Carolina are. Silfab is no different !!
They’re moving a potential environmental risk into the heart of one of the fastest growing towns in the US. No there’s no guarantee if 800 jobs or 125 million in investments. It’s an open lease over 8 years which allows Silfab to walk away at any time. And who’s responsible if there is an environmental issue? They’re mot paying taxes no matter what the government says. They’ll pay fines. That money goes to the council not the town schools.
What is the environmental risk?
What is the impact on roads, schools, infrastructure and environment to this plant being built in our community? They intend to build their plant off a single lane road that is already vehicles blocked at rush hour and extends to an entire network of intersecting streets. Also very near to two new schools being built.
Kathy Hocker
hockek@gmail.com
We have been installing Silfab panels almost exclusively for years now and love them! We are delighted to hear this great news!
Maybe you’d like the highly toxic chemicals spewing out of the building, which by the way was built for DISTRIBUTION, containing over 100 garage doors in your neighborhood, but we DON’T. We would like to know that our Fort Mill residents are breathing clean, fresh air and don’t have to worry about incidents like what happened in East Palestine, Ohio, and more recently in Gastonia, NC (a county that rejected their bid in NC) or the recent accident in Texas this past week. With TWO schools and a senior living center within yards of this building which was NOT zoned for this kind of manufacturing should be moved to some remote site away from a heavy populated growing community.
What chemicals are spewing?