Published

1 year ago

February 13, 2025

Alice Rush

Attendees were given a tour of the solar cell manufacturing facility.

ES Foundry marked a significant milestone in the U.S. solar manufacturing industry on Jan. 31 with the grand opening of its solar cell manufacturing facility in Greenwood, South Carolina. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, which attracted industry leaders, government officials, and community members, celebrated the company’s investment in renewable energy and local economic development.

Reviving American Solar Manufacturing

During the event, ES Foundry’s Founder and CEO, Alex Zhu, emphasized the significance of this grand opening as a pivotal moment in the revival of U.S. solar manufacturing. Zhu highlighted the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in fostering policy support for clean energy initiatives, allowing ES Foundry to establish the first solar cell manufacturing plant in the country in 14 years. He also shared ambitious plans for the facility, stating that it will be the largest of its kind in the U.S. within months, with production capacity expected to reach 1 GW in 2025 and scale up to 3 GW soon.

“The future begins now.” – Alex Zhu, Founder and CEO, ES Foundry

Economic Growth and Job Creation

The new ES Foundry facility is located in the former Fujifilm manufacturing building. During the event, Zhu paid tribute to Fujifilm and announced that the company has already hired 125 employees, including former workers from Fujifilm and Ascend Performance Materials, both of which recently closed facilities in the area. Zhu also announced plans to expand the workforce to over 500 employees by Q3 2025.

Greenwood Mayor Brandon Smith applauded the investment, stating that the new facility strengthens Greenwood’s position as a hub for advanced manufacturing.

“Economic development flows to the city,” Smith said.

Similarly, State House Representative John McCravy welcomed ES Foundry and expressed pride in the local workforce and their role in bringing solar cell manufacturing back to America.

“You’ve come to a place where business is welcome,” McCravy said.

Greenwood County Council Vice Chairman Dayne Pruitt described the facility’s opening as a moment of “opportunities, progress, and long-term growth.” He emphasized its importance as one of the first new companies to establish itself on the former Fujifilm campus and a catalyst for innovation and sustainability in the region.

A Look Ahead

ES Foundry was created to bring solar cell manufacturing back to the U.S. The plant will manufacture silicon raw wafers into high-efficiency solar cells using a cutting-edge diffusion process, ensuring that the products meet the criteria for being genuinely American-made. By creating genuinely American-made solar cells, ES Foundry empowers developers and project managers to capitalize on Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) benefits for domestic products.

With Phase 2 expansion on the horizon, ES Foundry is set to redefine American solar manufacturing and strengthen domestic supply chains. As it continues its rapid growth, ES Foundry stands as an example of how American manufacturing can compete globally. With its roots firmly planted in Greenwood, this facility is not just a factory—it’s a testament to the power of clean energy, economic renewal, and a vision for a brighter, more sustainable future.

Check out Energy for All Y’all for more clean energy success stories in the Southeast!

The post Breathing New Life Into American Solar Manufacturing: ES Foundry Opens New SC Solar Cell Facility appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Breathing New Life Into American Solar Manufacturing: ES Foundry Opens New SC Solar Cell Facility

Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy Concepts Can’t Violate the Laws of Physics

Published

6 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

In the early days of 2GreenEnergy, my people and I were vigorously engaged in finding solid ideas in cleantech that needed funding in order to move forward.

I vividly remember a conversation with a guy in Maryland who was trying to explain the (ostensible) breakthrough that he and his team had made in hydrokinetics. When I was having trouble visualizing what we was talking about, he asked me to “think of it as a river in a box.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “You mean you take a box full of standing water, add energy to it get it moving, then extract that energy, leaving you with more energy that you added to it.”

“Exactly.”

I politely explained that the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, make this impossible.

He wasn’t through, however, and insisted that, in his office, his people had constructed a “working model.”

Here’s where my tone descended into something less than 100% polite. I told him that he may think he has a working model, but he’s wrong; if he believes this, he’s ignorant; if he doesn’t, but is conducting this conversation anyway, he’s a fraud.

“But don’t you want to come see it?” he implored.

“No. Not only would not fly across the country to see whatever it is you claim to have built, I wouldn’t walk across the street to a “working model” of something that is theoretically impossible.”

—

I tell this story because the claim made at the upper left is essentially identical. You’re pumping water up out of a stream, and then claiming to extract more energy when the water flows back into the stream.

Of course, social media today is rife with complete crap like this. We’ve devolved to a point where defrauding money out of idiots is rapidly replacing baseball as our national pastime.