US loans $1.45 billion to South Korea’s Qcells to build solar facility

On Thursday, the US Department of Energy announced a conditional loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion for South Korea’s Qcells. This funding will support the company’s $2.5 billion solar manufacturing plant in Cartersville, Georgia.?

The new facility will produce solar panels and components like cells, ingots, and wafers, potentially supplying enough panels to power half a million American homes each year.

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Qcells’ Cartersville plant began producing solar panels in April and is expected to start making subcomponents by the end of the year, according to Qcells spokesperson Marta Stoepker. Once fully operational, the facility will create nearly 2,000 jobs.?

Qcells also has an existing plant in Dalton, Georgia, which opened in 2019.

“There is an oversupply of artificially cheap panels in our warehouses, and it’s definitely putting a strain on domestic producers in the United States. So this one is really helpful in terms of navigating some of those headwinds,” Stoepker said.

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