Silfab, Cirba among SC companies losing out on million-dollar grants cut by Trump administration

FORT MILL — Some South Carolina-based companies, including one building a solar-panel factory in Fort Mill, were among those that lost millions of dollars in federal grant cuts by the Department of Energy, announced on Oct. 8.

Silfab Solar, which has its plant under construction, lost a $4.9 million grant awarded last year under the Biden administration. Solar Power World, a trade website that reports on the solar industry, has been reporting on the cuts over the past two weeks.

A spokesperson for Silfab Solar said the company would not comment on the grant cancellation. The Canadian-based manufacturer also has an operation in Washington state, where a $2.9 million grant was cut as well, according to records.

Nationwide, more than 600 grants have been canceled.

In Columbia, where Cirba Solutions is building a lithium-ion battery processing facility, it had its $200 million grant revoked. The loss won’t prevent the company from moving forward with the Columbia plant, officials said.

“We continue to collaborate strongly with DOE on our grant projects,” the company’s communications office said in an Oct. 10 statement. “We are currently continuing the project as planned to execute our strategy to support the nation’s growing battery materials supply chain. Cirba Solutions supports the administration’s efforts to strengthen domestic critical minerals and reduce foreign reliance.”

The switch between administrations shows a shift at the capital regarding green energy programs. Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency in the Trump administration, called the EPA’s Solar for All program a wasteful boondoggle.

“One of the more shocking features of Solar for All was with regards to the massive dilution of the money as many grants go through pass-through-after-pass-through-after-pass-through-after pass-through, with all of the middlemen taking their own cut,” Zeldin said in a recorded statement announcing its cancellation. “At least 15 percent, by conservative estimates.”

Silfab’s grant was for creating solar cells at the future Fort Mill plant, according to the Department of Commerce. The project is under fire by residents contesting the location of the plant in a light-industrial zone, near a new school and several homes.