The Inflation Reduction Act has clearly kickstarted investment in U.S. clean energy manufacturing. Last year, automakers and battery manufacturers announced that they’d spend toptechtrends.com/2022/08/14/battery-investment-moves-onshore-to-kickstart-us-ev-production/”>tens of billions of dollars to ramp up EV production in the U.S. Now it’s solar’s turn.
Today, Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Qcells announced that it’ll spend $2.5 billion to build a new plant in Georgia and expand an existing one.
The new plant will crank out 3.3 gigawatts of solar panels annually. That’s enough to supply nearly a fifth of current U.S. demand. Expansion at the other plant will add another 2 gigawatts of capacity. When completed, Qcells’ Georgia facilities will employ 2,500 people and will be capable of making 8.4 gigawatts of solar panels, cementing the Peach State’s status as a leader in solar manufacturing.
Qcells’ new campus won’t just be a final assembly plant, either. It will handle just about everything, from turning polysilicon into ingots, slicing ingots into wafters, turning wafers into cells and packing cells into panels. It’s a level of vertical integration that is seldom seen in the U.S.
toptechtrends.com/2023/01/11/us-solar-manufacturing-gets-boost-with-2-5b-georgia-deal/”>US solar manufacturing gets boost with $2.5B Georgia deal by toptechtrends.com/author/tim-de-chant/”>Tim De Chant originally published on toptechtrends.com/”>TechCrunch
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