US commits to conditional $1.45bn loan backing South Korea's Qcells Georgia solar factory
Federal support will "reestablish critical parts of the domestic solar supply chain and reinforce" nation's leadership role in clean energy: LPO head Jigar Shah
The Department of Energy (DoE) announced a conditional $1.45bn loan guarantee commitment to South Korea’s Qcells that will support its vertically integrated solar supply chain factory under construction in the state of Georgia, the largest ever built in the US for ingots and wafers.
LPO director Jigar Shah said the factor “will reestablish critical parts of the domestic solar supply chain and reinforce the United States’ status as a global clean energy leader.”
He also noted it will be the first new fully integrated silicon-based solar manufacturing facility here in over a decade. When fully operational, it will produce 3.3GW/yr of panels and be used for both grid-scale and distributed solar projects.
Solar products manufactured in Cartersville will largely replace those imported mostly from China and Southeast Asian nations of Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Shah said the Georgia facility will benefit from the federal advanced manufacturing production tax credit, also known as 45X, available for clean energy technologies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the 2022 climate law.
The 45X incentivises domestic manufacturing at each step of the supply chain. For solar components, the credit amount is calculated by multiplying their size or weight by a dollar value under rules set by the Department of Treasury.
He also noted that panels produced in Cartersville will help solar project developers qualify for the IRA's domestic content bonus eligibility requirement for investment tax credits (ITCs) and production tax credits (PTCs).
Qcells is among the 10 largest utility-scale project developers for both solar and storage in the US with more than 2 GW of projects developed or constructed and a project development pipeline of at least 10GW.
The company, part of the Hanwha Group, a South Korean conglomerate based in Seoul, has entered a 8-year, 12GW solar and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) deal with Microsoft to be fulfilled with panels made in Cartersville. The technology giant has contracted with those projects through PPAs.
It follows a 2023 “strategic alliance” between Qcells and Microsoft, which has committed to a goal of achieving 100% coverage of electricity consumption with purchased renewable energy by 2025.