Red States Are Killin’ It With Their Solar Factories

A new solar panel factory has opened in Summerville, South Carolina, run by a company called Translucent Energy. The plant started production on August 17 with capacity to make 1.3 gigawatts of solar panels a year, and it's expected to create 167 jobs by the end of the year, with more planned as the company expands. South Carolina currently gets less than 4% of its electricity from solar, so this is a big jump for the state's solar manufacturing base, though the company says it plans to sell panels nationwide rather than just locally.

The timing connects to a trade move by the Trump administration. On August 6, the White House placed tariffs on imported polysilicon, the raw material used to make solar cells, as a way to encourage more of that material to be made in the US. Translucent's leadership says this gives them confidence to keep investing, and the company says it eventually wants to make solar wafers and cells in the US too, not just finished panels.

Beyond panels, Translucent also builds portable, foldable solar power systems that can be set up on a roof, on the ground, or moved to a new site, plus EV charging stations that can run off-grid or connect to the power grid. These are aimed mostly at commercial, industrial, and remote-power customers rather than typical homeowners, but the broader trend is worth noting: solar panel manufacturing is expanding fast across the US right now, which industry groups expect will keep adding supply even as demand for solar continues to outpace it.