Dive Transient:
- South Korea-based vitality firm Q Cells introduced Wednesday it is going to spend greater than $2.5 billion on a photo voltaic manufacturing plant in Georgia, a part of a plan to “to determine a full photo voltaic provide chain in the USA.”
- The brand new plant in Bartow County will manufacture 3.3 GW of photo voltaic ingots, wafers, cells and completed panels, making it the biggest totally built-in photo voltaic manufacturing website within the U.S, based on the discharge. A 2.2 GW growth at its Dalton, Georgia, facility can also be deliberate.
- The build-out of the brand new facility will come after the Dalton growth, with industrial manufacturing slated for late 2024. The funding is predicted to deliver the South Korea-based producer’s whole photo voltaic panel manufacturing capability within the state to eight.4 GW by subsequent yr.
Dive Perception:
Q Cells’ photo voltaic funding, which President Joe Biden known as the biggest in U.S. historical past, follows the signing of the Inflation Discount Act, which features a host of incentives and tax credit to spur clear vitality manufacturing.
Biden stated in an announcement that the Georgia plant will “deliver again our provide chains so we aren’t reliant on different nations, decrease the price of clear vitality, and assist us fight the local weather disaster.”
Q Cells is upping its funding throughout the photo voltaic worth chain from uncooked supplies to completed product. As a part of this effort, dad or mum firm Hanwha not too long ago turned the main shareholder in polysilicon producer REC Silicon. Polysilicon is a key feedstock for photo voltaic.
Efforts are additionally underway to fabricate low-carbon polysilicon on the Norway-headquartered firm’s manufacturing unit in Moses Lake, Washington, which is powered by emission-free hydroelectricity. That facility will restart manufacturing within the second half of 2023.
Q Cells started working in Georgia in 2019, and introduced growth plans final yr to develop capability at its Dalton facility. With this announcement, the power is ready to supply 5.1 GW yearly beginning this yr.
“By constructing out a robust, dependable photo voltaic provide chain in America, we’ll sort out the local weather disaster head-on whereas additionally creating good paying, manufacturing jobs proper right here at dwelling,” stated U.S. Secretary of Vitality Jennifer Granholm.