US government will loan $1.45 billion to help a South Korean firm build a solar plant in Georgia
ATLANTA– The federal government is making its first loan for a crystalline silicon solar plant. The $1.45 billion loan will support a South Korean company as it seeks to build out key parts of the U.S. solar supply chain.
The U.S. Department of Energy loan, announced Thursday, will be key to financing a $2.2 billion complex that Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, is building. The company plans to use polysilicon refined in Washington state and make ingots, wafers and solar cells — the building blocks of finished solar modules — in Cartersville, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta.
President Joe Biden Inflation Reduction Actnot only provides an additional tax break on U.S.-made solar equipment, but also ensures that manufacturers can earn a premium for every unit of polysilicon they refine and for every wafer, cell and module they make.
“This loan is special because it’s one of the first facilities where we’re not just making modules, we’re making cells and wafers,” Jigar Shah, director of the Department of Energy’s loan programs, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. “So we’re bringing a lot more of the supply chain into the United States.”
Qcells began assembling modules in April at a portion of the complex, which will have a capacity of 3.3 gigawatts of solar panels per year. The Cartersville plant currently employs about 750 workers and is expected to have 2,000 employees when it is complete. Qcells says it is on track to complete the wafer and cell portions of the plant in December.
The company also has a $630 million manufacturing facility in Dalton, farther northwest in Georgia, with a capacity of 5.1 gigawatts per year. That facility, which employs 1,800 people, was built without government loans. The company imports cells for the Dalton plant.
The Cartersville plant would be the largest ingot and wafer fabrication facility in the United States, according to the Department of Energy. Between the Dalton and Cartersville plants, Qcells will produce enough solar panels to power nearly 1.3 million homes per year, reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation.
Microsoft Corp. has signed a contract to take over a significant portion of the production at its Cartersville plant for an eight-year period.
Qcells must meet certain conditions to qualify for the loan. According to company spokesperson Marta Stoepker, Qcells is confident that it will meet the requirements.
“The loan we are getting is very important to stay on track with our goal of really moving the supply chain to America and becoming successful,” Stoepker said.
Still, the company said the Biden administration must remain committed to supporting domestic solar production amid a continued surge in cheap imports from Asia that have driven down solar panel prices. Qcells and other manufacturers are insist on tariffs to protect against what they call below-cost dumping by companies in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam with ties to China. Stoepker said the Biden administration could also help by refining the guidelines for the tax credit bonus for American-made equipment.
Shah defended the government’s efforts, saying the support for the industry “gives a lot of stability to people to invest.”
He said the United States is on track to have a reliable domestic supply chain that can meet most solar panel needs.
“Domestic demand for solar panels in 2026 is expected to be around 50 gigawatts. We expect to produce around 40 gigawatts in 2026,” Shah said. “That means 80 percent of the modules we deploy in the United States in 2026 are expected to be domestic.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, a Georgia Democrat who has been the biggest cheerleader for the Biden administration’s support for clean energy projects in the state, said the loan “will continue to grow our economy and strengthen America’s energy independence.”