Source:businesswire.com
The $125 million investment from ARC’s Energy Fund 9 includes co-investments by Manulife Financial Corporation, Ontario Power Generation Inc. Pension Plan, CF Private Equity and BDC Capital’s Cleantech Practice. ARC is one of North America’s most established energy-focused private equity fund managers. The latest investment reflects ARC’s continued confidence in Silfab’s ability to meet increasing demand for high-quality PV modules through a sustainable growth strategy guided by Silfab’s leadership team and built upon 40 years of experience in the solar industry.
“Silfab is ideally situated to meet North America’s growing appetite for domestically manufactured cutting-edge solar products. ARC remains confident that Silfab will be a driver in clean tech manufacturing and U.S. engineered product innovation. Silfab continues to implement an impressive growth plan built around its unwavering commitment to manufacture high-quality products and its decades of innovation and experience,” said Brian Boulanger, CEO of ARC.
Silfab’s third U.S. solar manufacturing facility is anticipated to be fully operational in 2024 with an initial annual capability of 1 gigawatt cell production and an additional 1.2 gigawatts of PV solar module assembly. Investing in U.S.-made solar cells is a critical component in a clean supply chain to support the manufacturing of solar panels for North American customers. The new facility is expected to generate more than 800 new U.S. jobs. Other details of the new facility, including location, will be announced at a future date.
“Domestic production of solar cells represents a strategic effort to further manage our supply chain and to apply our technical prowess from the ground up for a comprehensive manufacturing process,” said Paolo Maccario, Silfab’s Chief Executive Officer. “Silfab has grown more than 40 percent since ARC’s initial support. We are thankful for our collaborative relationship with ARC and with the Biden administration and its Inflation Reduction Act, both enabling us to accelerate our U.S. manufacturing strategy. Our growth means more solar jobs for America and reliable energy that customers will use to reduce both costs and their carbon footprint.”
With manufacturing facilities across North America to serve the expanding U.S. market, Silfab utilizes best-in-class automation for ultra-high efficiency module production, leverages partnerships for next-generation technology applications, and offers industry-leading warranties for residential and commercial performance.
ARC’s first investment, announced in September 2021, enabled Silfab to make further enhancements to production lines at existing Washington facilities in order to deploy next-generation PV modules to North American consumer, business, and institutional markets.
Backed by some of the best warranties in the industry, Silfab manufactures among the most durable, reliable and powerful solar PV modules for the North American residential and commercial markets. Silfab has recorded more than a dozen expansions of production capacity, most recently with state-of-the-art PV module assembly plants in the state of Washington.
