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U.S. solar manufacturer Suniva announced plans on Tuesday to construct a 4.5-GW monocrystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing facility in Laurens, South Carolina. As reported by Detik Finance, the $350 million investment will increase the company’s total domestic manufacturing capacity to more than 5.5 GW.
Construction of the plant is scheduled to facilitate an operational launch in the second quarter of 2027. This expansion is expected to establish Suniva as the largest merchant solar cell manufacturer operating within the United States.
Growth in the domestic production of solar components like cells, wafers, and ingots is largely attributed to federal incentives. The Inflation Reduction Act, specifically the 45X advanced manufacturing production credit, has encouraged companies to onshore their supply chains.
Deloitte’s U.S. renewable energy leader, Keith Adams, noted that the expansion addresses critical supply chain gaps. He highlighted that the move comes as data centers increasingly require more power to support artificial intelligence operations.
“With the race to build power to meet AI data center demand, an expansion in U.S. solar cell capacity could matter because it targets an important remaining bottleneck in the domestic stack, at a moment when regulations, stricter tax-credit qualification requirements, and trade enforcement are all increasing the value of supply chain resilience and reshoring,” said Keith Adams, Deloitte’s U.S. renewable energy leader.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the U.S. achieved a fully onshored solar supply chain in October following the opening of Corning’s facility in Michigan. However, Deloitte reported that while module production has surged sevenfold to 56.5 GW since 2022, many upstream components remain heavily dependent on imports.
“2025 was a monumental year for the U.S. solar manufacturing industry,” said SEIA in a March report.
The association further detailed that while new cell and wafer capacities are coming online for the first time in years, the current output still lags behind the growing national demand for solar energy components.
“New cell capacity continued to expand, and wafer capacity came online for the first time since 2016 … However, the actual production of these facilities remains considerably below domestic demand,” said SEIA.
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group advocating for domestic manufacturing protection, views the South Carolina project as a vital step for energy security. The group emphasizes that a domestic supply chain is necessary to meet the rising electricity needs of advanced computing sectors.
“expansion highlights the critical importance of rebuilding the domestic crystalline silicon photovoltaic supply chain,” said the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
The organization maintains that the rapid scaling of energy generation must be secured through fully domestic means to support national infrastructure.
“As electricity demand surges, driven in part by data centers and advanced computing, the United States must rapidly scale energy generation capacity,” said the coalition.
The group concluded its assessment by emphasizing the strategic role of solar power in the current economic landscape.
“Solar is uniquely positioned to meet this demand, but doing so securely requires a fully domestic supply chain,” said the coalition.
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