Frustration Boils Over At Town Hall About Silfab Solar
FORT MILL, S.C. – A heated town hall Tuesday night in Fort Mill brought out more than a hundred residents. They showed up to talk about Silfab, the controversial solar panel manufacturing company that’s setting up shop in Fort Mill. Silfab will convert silicone wafers into solar chips. That process requires chemicals and gasses. Congressman Ralph Norman hosted the town hall. Officials from state Emergency Management, DOT and DHEC were on hand to answer questions, but residents weren’t happy with the answers.
One woman asked passionately, “How was it ever put here to begin with? That’s the question we want answered!”
A man said, “We’re getting the runaround. I feel like it’s just a spin, you know? Each one blames the next one. Then the timeline doesn’t make sense.”
And a mother asked through tears, “Can you justify to me that my kids will be breathing these chemicals day in and day out while they’re just trying to get an education?”
Silfab did not participate in Tuesday’s town hall. Silfab Solar’s Director of Operations Greg Basden tells WCCB they didn’t want their presence to interfere with the government agencies that did participate.
One-on-One
WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty sat down with Basden for a one-on-one interview. Our cameras were also given a rare look inside the Silfab building in Fort Mill on Monday. The 785,000 square feet is mostly empty right now. But pretty soon, one half will house solar panel assembly and shipping. The other half, where a construction crew is currently working, is where solar cells will be created. This is the side that has some residents in Fort Mill up in arms about the chemicals used to convert silicone wafers into the cells. Those chemicals are silane gas and hydrofluoric acid.
Basden says, “With all the checks and engineering controls that we have in place, everything that we do here is safe.”
The National Institutes of Health describes silane as “flammable and poisonous.” It describes hydrofluoric acid as “highly toxic” and “corrosive.” Both are commonly used in industrial applications. Basden says, “They’re not dangerous if they’re handled properly.” He continues, “We have so many different overchecks for leakages and things like that and spills. The system will shut itself down automatically.”
While Silfab as a company has never converted silicone wafers to solar cells before, Basden says the people they’ve hired, have. He says, “On staff, we’ve got over 50 years worth of experience, engineers, PhDs that know how to do this.”
Basden says the conversion process isn’t new. American companies used to make solar cells but outsourced the work to China because it was cheaper. He says now, the work is coming back to the U.S. thanks to advancements in technology. Basden says, “We are reshoring jobs.”
Right now, 25 people work at the Fort Mill plant. A year from now, Basden says nearly 600 people will work here. He says, “We’re not deterred. We’re confident in everything that we’re doing.”
Basden tells WCCB they expect to have some production up and running before the end of the year. He expects production to ramp up in the first quarter of 2025.
