South Carolina, UNITED STATES — President Joe Biden visited South Carolina to commend a new $60 million solar investment as the latest example of his efforts to bring back the nation’s manufacturing industry.
Biden and other top administration officials are touring the country to promote how the administration’s economic policies, called “Bidenomics,” are impacting the country. Despite record employment and slowing inflation, US voters continue to question the economy’s strength and Biden’s leadership.
Enphase Energy Inc’s solar investment is part of the $500 billion in private investment that has benefited U.S. manufacturing since Biden took office, he stated.
President Biden emphasized that he is not here to declare economic victory. “I’m here to say that we have a plan to turn it around quickly,” Bidden continued referring to solar investment.
According to the White House, Enphase’s solar investment will create around 1,800 new jobs in the United States, including 600 in South Carolina, between Enphase and its partner, multinational manufacturing giant Flex Ltd.
Enphase’s solar investment involves the construction of six new manufacturing lines, the expansion of clean-energy supply chains, and the provision of solar energy to up to one million homes per year.
Republicans voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to boost green energy projects, according to Biden administration officials. Officials point out, however, that these same Republicans support the legislation’s spurring of local investments.
Because of Biden’s solar investment, one project will soon begin in the district of Georgia congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Biden’s outspoken critic who recently attempted to impeach the president.
Bidden said that he will be there for the groundbreaking.
Biden visited a Flex facility in West Columbia, South Carolina, to learn about the solar investment that will create supplies for Enphase at the facility.
Enphase supplies microinverters and batteries for solar arrays, although its products are manufactured in China, Mexico, and India. A system that is typically included in a solar investment.
The announcement of solar investment on Thursday will mark Enphase’s first contract manufacturing site in the United States.
Raghu Belur, co-founder, and inventor of Enphase Energy, presented Biden with a table showing the company’s products and mentioned that his company had created millions of them over the years, however all outside the United States.