ICYMI: AJC: $1.45B Federal Loan Helps Power Up New-Age Solar Plant North of Atlanta

Atlanta, GA—Yesterday, the Biden-Harris administration announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion for Georgia-based solar company Qcells. This is the first solar facility of its kind constructed in the United States in over a decade, a major step in strengthening America’s domestic solar supply chain.

“Thanks to Vice President Harris’ deciding vote on the clean energy plan, Georgia will be home to a first-of-its-kind solar facility which means thousands of good-paying, clean energy jobs for hardworking Georgia families,” said Mark McLaurin, Climate Power’s Georgia State Desk Director. “In the meantime, Trump and his allies threaten to gut this progress—even as other Republicans in Congress embrace these projects and run for political cover from Trump’s crusade to end them by repealing the Biden-Harris administration’s clean energy tax credits.”

Quick facts:

• The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the two Georgia-based Qcells facilities—in Cartersville and Dalton—“will crank out enough panels to power 1.3 million homes annually and employ 4,000 full-time workers.” 
• According to a recent economic review provided by the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development, this investment will indirectly create nearly 6,800 jobs in Georgia’s Bartow and Whitfield Counties and has a potential sales output of more than $2 billion. 

Read more below: 

Atlanta Journal Constitution: $1.45B federal loan helps power up new-age solar plant north of Atlanta

By: Drew Kann

• The hulking Qcells solar panel manufacturing plant nearing completion 50 miles northwest of Atlanta is set to get new financial backing from a $1.45 billion federal loan, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday.
• The loan guarantee will help finance the construction of the facility, which has been hyped as a game-changer by the company and President Joe Biden’s administration because it will boast the country’s first fully-integrated solar supply chain under one roof.
• On one side of the factory, refined polysilicon will be molded into huge cylinders called ingots. After the material is cut into razor-thin slices, chemical treatments will turn the wafers into photovoltaic cells capable of converting the sun’s rays into electricity. Finally, cells will be assembled into finished solar panels at the opposite end of the plant.
• At its full capacity, the Cartersville factory will be able to build 3.3 gigawatts of solar panels each year. Qcells also operates a 5.1-gigawatt plant in Dalton, which expanded its capacity last year. The two combined will crank out enough panels to power 1.3 million homes annually and employ 4,000 full-time workers, the company says.
• Both the Cartersville factory and the Dalton expansion were part of a $2.5 billion investment Qcells announced to grow its manufacturing presence in Georgia, which was spurred, in part, by incentives in Biden’s signature climate and healthcare law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
• By building their products in the U.S., Qcells — which is owned by the Korean corporation Hanwha Solutions — will be able to access a domestic solar manufacturing tax credit created by the IRA. That incentive was crafted by U.S Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga). Companies installing solar are also eligible for tax credits, if enough of the panels they use are made in the U.S.
• In a statement, Ossoff praised the loan announcement as “yet another historic federal investment in Georgia solar manufacturing to continue growing our economy and strengthening American energy independence.”
• The loan announcement comes as trade battles continue to roil the global solar industry. The U.S. is trying to stand up its own domestic solar manufacturing supply chain to compete in an industry long dominated by China. Chinese companies control more than 80% of the global production for all components needed to make panels, and the dumping of cheap modules produced in China into markets has long been the bane of other manufacturers.

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