Translucent Energy plans to start making solar modules in Dorchester County later this year.
John McDermott has been the business editor of The Post and Courier since 2006. He’s written about all facets of the South Carolina economy, served in the U.S. Air Force and is a graduate of the University of Hawaii-Manoa journalism program.
Translucent Energy plans to start making solar modules in Dorchester County later this year.
A solar-module manufacturer plans to create nearly 170 jobs at a new Summerville factory, fueled in part by U.S. tariffs being imposed on competing overseas-made products.
New York-based Translucent Energy said it’s aiming to be fully operational by the end of the year at 175 McQueen Blvd., off of Jedburg Road between Interstate 26 and Highway 78.
The company, which was approved for tax breaks by Dorchester County Council on July 20, is leasing a 283,000-quare foot building previously occupied by BAE Systems, Caterpillar and Corning.
Translucent said the factory will produce solar modules for customers across the spectrum, ranging from individual homeowners to large-scale utility developers.
The $15.7 million first-phase investment is expected to create 167 jobs, “anchoring the company’s plan to build a complete solar manufacturing value chain on American soil,” Augustus Rylands,, managing director, said in a written statement.
The factory will make enough panels each year to create 1.2 gigawatts of energy.
“Summerville is the first step in our multiyear plan,” Rylands said, adding that the company is aiming to produce solar cells and their ultra-thin wafers “in the near future.”
He said the company welcomed the 15 percent tariffs announced by the Trump administration on Aug. 6 for certain foreign-made solar panel components.
The new import fees take effect Dec. 4.
“They give American solar manufacturers like us the long-term certainty needed to invest at scale,” Rylands said.
Translucent said the tariffs, combined with the existing federal “45X” tax credits that are still available to clean-energy manufacturers for a few more years before being phased out, “are widely expected to accelerate the reshoring of the industry that is already underway.”
Under the incentives deal that the county approved on July 20 the company’s property taxes will be replaced with a fixed fee for 20 years. Also, Translucent will be credited 20 percent of those payments for six years to reimburse it for certain expenses associated with the expansion, such as road improvements and utility upgrades.
The deal surfaced publicly earlier this summer.
“For clarity, I think some folks are worried this is a solar farm,” Dorchester County Council member Jay Byars said at a June 15 meeting. “It is not.”
The Translucent expansion was at least the fourth to spring from the solar-energy industry in South Carolina since the spring, mostly in the Upstate.
ES Foundry, for example, recently announced an expansion of its Greenwood factory.
Also, Fortified Solar said it’s investing $22.75 million in Greenville, while Suniva Inc. is shelling out about $600 million near I-385 in Laurens County, where the Atlanta-based company plans to create more than 560 jobs and quadruple its production capacity.
Contact John McDermott at 843-937-5572.
John McDermott has been the business editor of The Post and Courier since 2006. He’s written about all facets of the South Carolina economy, served in the U.S. Air Force and is a graduate of the University of Hawaii-Manoa journalism program.
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