President Joe Biden arrived in West Columbia, South Carolina to a newly announced inverter manufacturing facility that will deliver Enphase products. The facility, owned and operated by contract manufacturer Flex, is one wave in the record-breaking tide of clean energy investment announcements that have come over the last year.
“Today Enphase is shipping their first microinverters made in America,” said Biden.
Biden celebrated the $497 billion in manufacturing investments that have been announced since the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure laws were passed. Over 800,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since Biden took office. He highlighted the $11 billion in clean energy investments in South Carolina alone, where he delivered a speech on his new brand of economics dubbed “Bidenomics.”
Biden’s economic model is one focused on bringing middle-class jobs back to the United States, particularly manufacturing jobs, and restoring good-paying jobs to communities that were “sold out” to overseas operations during the end of the twentieth century.
“Trickle-down economics represented a time when we walked away from how this country was built,” said the President. “Bidenomics means restoring the American dream.”
The South Carolina facility is owned and operated by contract manufacturer Flex and will produce Enphase microinverters, the leading provider of inverters of this type.
The inverter provider said it expects to add a total of three contract manufacturing facilities in the United States, producing over 18 million microinverters per year, equivalent to meeting the needs of 1 million U.S. solar homes. The facility will bring 600 jobs to South Carolina, with 1,800 jobs in total being added across the three contract sites.
Enphase estimates it will invest nearly $20 million per manufacturing facility in the U.S. for a total of $60 million in capital investment across all U.S. manufacturing lines in addition to significant capital investments from its contract manufacturing partners.
Image: Enphase
Image: Enphase
“Enphase shares our commitment to accelerating the world’s transition to clean energy through advanced technology and strategic regional manufacturing,” said Revathi Advaithi, chief executive officer, Flex.
Manufacturing clean energy components in the United States has become much more attractive following Biden’s largest-ever $369 billion investment in climate and energy via the Inflation Reduction Act. The Act contains tax credits for producing clean energy components, as well as domestic content tax credit adders for projects that contain a certain threshold of U.S.-made parts.
A survey by the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) found that 100% of its respondents perceive the U.S. market to be increasing in attractiveness relative to other major countries in renewable energy investment. The response, made by executives from 43 leading companies with $100 million in annual revenues or investments, is the first time in the ACORE survey’s history that the United States has unanimously been perceived to be increasing in relative attractiveness to other nations.
By 2030, it is estimated the IRA will drive the installation of 950 million solar panels, 120,000 wind turbines, and 2,300 grid-scale battery facilities.
“By 2035, all electricity in America is going to be generated by clean energy,” said Biden.
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