The expansion will bring the company’s total domestic cell capacity to 5.5 GW, strengthening its position as the largest commercial solar cell manufacturer in the United States.
Suniva has announced plans to invest $350 million in a new manufacturing facility in Laurens, South Carolina. The project is expected to start in the second quarter of 2027 and have an annual production capacity of 4.5 GW. Combined with production from the existing headquarters and factory in Norcross, Georgia, the expansion will bring Suniva’s total annual capacity to more than 5.5 GW.
The Laurens facility is expected to create 564 new full-time jobs. The company indicated that the site will focus on the production of advanced solar cells that will help module manufacturers meet stringent domestic content requirements under the Inflation Reduction Act. Matt Card, president and COO of Suniva, stated that the question of where energy comes from and who controls the supply chain is a consequential issue facing the country.
Suniva remains a unique player in the domestic landscape as one of the few suppliers of commercial cells, meaning it sells cells to various third-party module assemblers rather than consuming the entire production for its own branded modules. Historically, the U.S. solar industry has suffered from a cell production bottleneck. While module assembly capacity has grown rapidly due to lower capital requirements, cell production has lagged. By expanding cell capacity, Suniva offers smaller and mid-sized U.S. module assemblers the opportunity to qualify for the 10% domestic content bonus on the investment tax.
While U.S. module assembly capacity has increased to over 65 GW, domestic cell production has historically hovered at less than 10% of that volume. This massive imbalance has created a strategic bottleneck for American-made panels to stay depending on imported internal components. SEIA data shows that without rapid scale-up of merchant cell capacity, most US manufacturers will struggle to meet domestic content thresholds. required for federal tax bonuses, especially as Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) rules tighten supply chains through 2026 and 2027.
Suniva’s technology is rooted in research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy from Georgia Tech’s University Center for Excellence in Photovoltaics. The company emphasizes its status as American-owned and operated as a differentiator from foreign-headquartered competitors that have recently established a U.S. footprint.
The announcement marks an important milestone in Suniva’s history. The company was founded in 2007 and filed for bankruptcy in 2017 due to a sharp increase in imports. After years of inactivity, the company announced a restart at the end of 2023, supported by the production credits provided by federal policy. In early 2025, Suniva began shipping the first cells from its Georgia factory to Canadian-American module manufacturer Heliene.
Suniva CEO Tony Etnyre said the expansion means domestically produced renewable energy will do more to secure the United States’ energy future. The Laurens County project has received support from the state of South Carolina, which has become an emerging hub for clean energy production following recent major investments from several global technology and automotive companies.
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