---
title: "HEAR HERE: Suniva picks Laurens County for first SC plant — $350M solar cell investment, 564 jobs"
url: https://www.herespartanburg.com/hear-here-suniva-picks-laurens-county-for-first-sc-plant-350m-solar-cell-investment-564-jobs/
date: 2026-04-25T07:18:47-04:00
modified: 2026-04-25T07:18:47-04:00
author: "Reginald Orr"
categories: ["Business", "Manufacturing"]
site: "HERESpartanburg"
attribution: "HERESpartanburg"
---

# HEAR HERE: Suniva picks Laurens County for first SC plant — $350M solar cell investment, 564 jobs

*Source: [HERESpartanburg](https://www.herespartanburg.com/hear-here-suniva-picks-laurens-county-for-first-sc-plant-350m-solar-cell-investment-564-jobs/) — April 25, 2026 by Reginald Orr*

Solar cell manufacturer Suniva, Inc. has chosen Laurens County for its first South Carolina manufacturing facility, the [South Carolina Department of Commerce](https://www.sccommerce.com/news/suniva-inc-selects-laurens-county-first-south-carolina-manufacturing-facility) announced. The U.S.-owned company plans a $350 million investment that will create 564 new jobs at a 620,000-square-foot facility at 1200 Commerce Blvd. in Laurens. Operations are expected to come online in 2027.

The announcement was independently confirmed by [Governor Henry McMaster’s office](https://governor.sc.gov/news/2026-04/suniva-inc-selects-laurens-county-first-south-carolina-manufacturing-facility), which posted the same investment and jobs figures alongside the formal welcome to the state. The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits tied to the project.

Founded in 2007 out of U.S. Department of Energy-funded research at Georgia Tech’s University Center for Excellence in Photovoltaics, Suniva became one of the largest and oldest merchant solar cell manufacturers in the country. The Laurens plant — paired with the company’s existing Georgia facility — will give Suniva annual capacity of more than 5.5 gigawatts of solar cells, putting the company among the highest-volume domestic producers.

The decision is the latest in a string of advanced-energy and advanced-manufacturing wins for the Upstate. According to the announcement, the regional development partner described Suniva as joining a growing roster of Upstate manufacturers whose products help power the world and deepen the region’s advanced-energy expertise — a corridor that already includes Spartanburg County’s BMW supply chain and Greenville’s automotive cluster, which the state markets to investors as a single integrated workforce. For Spartanburg County, the immediate read is workforce competition: 564 advanced-manufacturing jobs in Laurens (about 50 miles west on I-26) means another regional employer recruiting from the same Upstate technical-college pipeline that supplies Spartanburg’s Carbotech, ZF Chassis, and Toray facilities.

Suniva says individuals interested in the new positions should monitor the company’s careers page once recruiting opens. The plant’s 2027 production target gives the Upstate’s existing solar installers and EPC firms — several of which are headquartered in Greenville and Anderson — a domestic supplier in their backyard for the first time.