nick.nigro@atlaspolicy.com

Birla Carbon, a leading manufacturer and supplier of carbon solutions, today announced it selects Orangeburg County to establish the company’s first South Carolina operation. The $1 billion investment will create 124 new jobs. With more than 160 years of experience, Birla Carbon is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of high-quality carbon additives globally. The company currently operates 17 manufacturing facilities in 14 countries, providing solutions for rubber, plastics, coatings, inks and other niche industries.

Intelligent power management company Eaton is helping address the critical shortage of transformers and record demand for its solutions across utility, large commercial, industrial and data center customers. The company is investing $340 million to increase U.S. production of its three-phase transformers essential to reliable electrical power. Production and hiring at Eaton’s new Jonesville, South Carolina facility is expected to begin in 2027. Eaton will continue to also manufacture three-phase transformers at two Wisconsin facilities.

Silfab Solar, a leading North American solar panel manufacturer, today announced plans to expand its U.S. footprint by establishing operations in York County. The company’s $150 million investment will create 800 new jobs.

The world’s largest industrial battery maker is building a $500 million plant in the Upstate that could eventually employ 500 people. Pennsylvania-headquartered EnerSys announced plans Wednesday to manufacture lithium-ion battery cells at a 500,000-square-foot plant on 140 acres near Piedmont, south of Greenville. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2025. The target for operations to start is late 2027.

Scout Motors Inc. (“Scout”) is establishing its first manufacturing plant in Blythewood, which is near Columbia, South Carolina. At the Richland County site, the company will build all-electric, next-generation trucks and rugged SUVs harkening back to the iconic Scout vehicles produced from 1960 to 1980. The company’s $2 billion investment has the potential to create 4,000 or more permanent jobs. At full capacity, more than 200,000 Scout vehicles may be produced annually at the facility. 

Apex Clean Energy is developing Emerson Creek Wind, a wind energy project in rural Huron and Erie Counties in Ohio. Apex has spent many years working with interested landowners and community members to design a project that complements the region's agricultural roots and fosters new economic development.

The Cadence Solar Energy Center is a proposed solar power generation facility of up to 240 megawatts (MW) in Union County, Ohio, targeted to begin operating in 2026. Solar technology uses the power of the sun to deliver clean, renewable energy and is now one of the lowest-cost energy sources available.

Repsol Renewables is developing a utility-scale solar project in Gorham Township, Fulton County, Ohio and expects to install up to 199 megawatts (MW) of solar energy in the area, which has the potential to power more than 45,000 homes in Ohio annually. The solar project will be connected to the East Fayette Substation via a 2.2-mile-long, 138 kilovolt transmission line that will be sited wholly within the project boundary.

Redwood’s next Battery Materials Campus, in the heart of the “Battery Belt,” is just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. At Camp Hall in Berkeley County, Redwood will recycle, refine and manufacture anode and cathode components on more than 600 acres, creating more than 1,500 jobs and investing $3.5 billion in the local community. Eventually, this campus will produce 100 GWh of cathode and anode components per year –enough to power more than one million EVs. However, this site also provides us the opportunity to expand our operations to potentially several hundred GWh annually to meet future demand.

Envision AESC, a world-leading Japanese electric vehicle battery technology company, along with Governor Henry McMaster, announced its $810 million investment to build a new, state-of-the-art gigafactory in Florence, South Carolina. The 30GWh plant will create 1,170 skilled jobs in the region in its first phase, producing high performance batteries to power the next generation BMW Group’s EVs. By 2030, BMW Group will produce at least six fully electric models in its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.