Suniva has completed an $835 million capital raise to fund construction of its second U.S. solar cell manufacturing facility in Laurens County, South Carolina, according to the company and regulatory filings.

The financing combines debt and equity. Funds managed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives and I Squared Capital provided senior secured credit facilities, while JBA Asset Management provided a second-lien credit facility. Equity investments came from Electron Capital Partners, Orion Infrastructure Capital and Rubric Capital Management, along with certain other investors. Lion Point Capital, the company's largest shareholder and long-term backer, also participated in the financing.

Roth Capital Partners served as lead private placement agent, while J.P. Morgan was the sole structuring agent. Rodman & Renshaw advised Suniva.

South Carolina facility

The new facility, under development in Laurens County, will have 4.5 GW of annual monocrystalline silicon solar cell manufacturing capacity. The shell of the 621,468-square-foot building is already complete, according to the latest filing.

The facility is expected to bring Suniva's total U.S. solar cell manufacturing capacity to 5.5 GW once fully operational, up from 1 GW at its existing facility in Norcross, Georgia. The company expects the South Carolina plant to be completed in late 2027 and fully ramped in 2028.

The project is now described as an approximately $600 million investment and is expected to create 564 advanced manufacturing jobs. When the South Carolina project was first announced in April, the South Carolina Department of Commerce said the investment would be $350 million and create 564 jobs. Neither announcement provides an explanation for the difference in the stated investment amounts.

Capacity gap

The planned South Carolina plant would add 4.5 GW of annual cell capacity, more than quadrupling Suniva’s current 1 GW manufacturing base. The addition is larger than the roughly 3.2 GW of solar cell manufacturing capacity Reuters reported for the entire U.S. market in April.. Reuters reported in April that U.S. module capacity stood at about 60 GW, highlighting the gap between domestic cell production and downstream module manufacturing.

Suniva President and COO Matt Card told Reuters in April that the demand for the company’s solar=cells has exceeded the output of its existing facility.

"U.S. energy independence and meeting the needs of increasing energy usage in the United States requires domestic production of U.S. solar cells. As the only U.S.-owned solar cell manufacturer at commercial scale, we believe Suniva is uniquely well positioned in the market. We look forward to helping the United States and the Administration achieve its important goal of U.S. energy independence," said Tony Etnyre, CEO of Suniva, Inc. "With our second state-of-the-art high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing facility, we expect to be able to meet the growing needs for a U.S.-based source. We appreciate the strong partnership with South Carolina and the Laurens County community as we rapidly scale to meet this rising demand and strengthen the domestic U.S. solar supply chain while Suniva continues leading the next era of American solar manufacturing.”

Funding and ramp-up

The financing comes as Suniva moves toward a planned reverse merge with SUNation Energy, announced in June.

The financing supports construction of the facility, but the 4.5 GW of additional capacity will not be available until construction, equipment installation and production ramp-up are completed. The company expects the plant to be completed in late 2027 and fully ramped in 2028.

The company has also entered into long-term product offtake agreements with U.S. solar companies covering the majority of its planned future production, according to the filing. That claim remains part of the company's forward-looking description of the project rather than independently verified production already in operation.