Korean company announces largest solar investment in U.S. for two Georgia facilities

South Korean-based solar manufacturer Hanwha Q CELLS recently announced a $2.5 billion investment to expand its Dalton, Georgia solar plant and to build an additional plant in northwest Atlanta. The investment not only plans to bring 2,500 jobs to Georgia, but represents the largest single investment in solar manufacturing in the U.S.

According to John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, Hanwha Q CELLS is on the road to produce 30% of all U.S. demand for solar panels by 2027.

What is Hanwha Q CELLS?

The solar manufacturer opened a facility in Dalton in 2019 that produces solar panels. According to the company website, the panels the facility creates in a year have 1.7 gigawatts of capacity, meaning it's enough solar panels to harvest energy comparable to the peak power output of the Hoover Dam. For reference, the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy likens 1 gigawatt to 3.125 million solar panels, or the power of 100 million LED lightbulbs.

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Federal incentives at work

Senators and White House staff are calling the historic investment a win for the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act.

"To be very clear, this announcement would not have been possible if it were not for the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which delivered tax incentives for American solar manufacturers at every stage of the production supply chain," said Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Brian Deese, assistant to the president and director of the National Economic Council, said that the Q CELLS announcement is laying the groundwork for creating good-paying manufacturing jobs and strengthening the U.S. supply chain for critical products and technologies. He noted that photovoltaic solar cells, which comprise solar panels, were actually invented in the U.S. in the 1950s, but since then the fabrication and manufacturing have gone offshore to the point that China "controls the solar supply chain with a near monopoly on the components and subcomponents."

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Georgia gone green

The Hanwha Q CELLS announcement is the latest in a series of clean energy investments throughout the state. It joins a handful of other major, large-scale industrial projects aimed at renewable technologies that were announced in 2022 for the peach state.

Last year, Hyundai announced its electric vehicle plant in Bryan County as well as a joint venture with SK On to build a $5 billion battery plant in Bartow County. In Augusta, a company called Solvay is investing nearly $1 billion along with $178 million in Department of Energy grant support to produce battery materials. In Coweta County, a Norwegian battery company called Freyr announced a $2.6 billion battery cell factory.

"When you think about this from a climate perspective, we are in the decisive decade," Podesta said. The collection of recent announcements for clean energy means that the U.S. is on track to quadruple the domestic solar manufacturing capacity compared to when Biden took office, Podesta said.

Marisa Mecke is an environmental journalist. She can be reached by phone at (912) 328-4411 or at mmecke@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Hanwha Q CELLS announces investment in Georgia solar panel manufacture