Solar Plant in Georgia Gets $1.45B US Government Backing

The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded North American solar-panel manufacturer Qcells a conditional loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion for the development of its manufacturing facility in Cartersville, Georgia.

Qcells, a unit of South Korea-based conglomerate Hanwha Group, is developing the Cartersville plant into a vertically integrated factory to have every step of the solar-panel production process under one roof.

Work has already started on the factory, which is expected to begin operations by the end of the year. Once on-line, the plant s scheduled to produce a full solar supply chain of ingots, wafers, cells and finished panels and could become the largest ingot and wafer plant in the U.S. The factory will receive polysilicon, the raw material used to make the ingots, from a plant in Moses Lake, Washington, owned by REC Silicon, a U.S. manufacturer in which Hanwha owns a major stake

The loan guarantee comes as a tax credit created by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and aims to boost the U.S. solar-manufacturing industry, currently dominated by China. Much of the solar-energy incentives in the IRA came from the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act, which Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock sponsored in 2021 to encourage solar manufacturing in the U.S.

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“Our federal manufacturing incentives are driving economic development across the state of Georgia,” Ossoff said. “I join all federal, state and local leaders in celebrating yet another historic federal investment in Georgia solar manufacturing to continue growing our economy and strengthening American energy independence.”

Qcells has been active in Georgia’s burgeoning clean-energy economy since 2019, when it opened its first factory in Dalton in the state’s mountainous northwest corner. The company has since then invested heavily in the facility, expanding it three times since opening. According to Qcells, it is the largest manufacturing plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and can produce 5.1 gigawatts of solar capacity.

The Dalton and Cartersville factories represent a $2.5 billion investment, and when both are up and running, Qcells anticipates its total solar production capacity in Georgia could reach 8.4 gigawatts, or enough to power 1.3 million homes for a year.

“We have made such ambitious investments because we believe onshoring solar manufacturing is key to building a sustainable, secure and independent energy future in the U.S.,” Qcells said in a statement. “The ongoing support for our investments, stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act and the efforts of local to federal officials, affirms the importance of this critical industry and the need for a whole-of-government approach to see domestic solar manufacturing succeed long term.”

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