Qcells has secured a conditional commitment for its Cartersville, Georgia located factory from the DOE
The $1.45 billion loan will be disbursed basis the company achieving technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions
The factory is scheduled to start commercial production by the end of 2024
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has approved a loan of $1.45 billion for Qcells’ vertically integrated solar PV manufacturing facility in Cartersville, Georgia where the latter is investing more than $2.5 billion to produce ingots, wafers, cells and modules.
Backed by the DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) conditional commitment, the factory is aimed at manufacturing the full solar supply chain in the country.
The financing is based on the manufacturer satisfying certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before the department enters into definitive financing documents to fund the loan.
Qcells targets to bring the factory online by the end of 2024. It already operates over 5.1 GW annual manufacturing capacity at its Dalton factory in Georgia where Qcells added 2 GW in October 2023. Together between Dalton and Cartersville, its annual solar production capacity by 2024-end will increase to the previously announced 8.4 GW (see Hanwha Solutions Planning 8.4 GW US Production Capacity).
“We have made such ambitious investments because we believe onshoring solar manufacturing is key to building a sustainable, secure and independent energy future in the U.S.,” stated Qcells.
Pointing at the oversupply situation in the US PV market bringing down panel prices that have been hurting solar manufacturers, Qcells said the industry will need continued support to see a level-playing field from the administration.
It added, “The Department of Energy’s LPO is critical to supporting the onshoring of domestic solar manufacturing as efforts to level the playing field continue.”
TaiyangNews, along with EUPD Research and RE+ will bring together stakeholders from across the US solar industry to discuss the challenges and opportunities for competitive PV manufacturing of solar wafers, cells and modules in the US on September 9, 2024 for the Solar Made in USA Conference at RE+ at Anaheim, California, US. Registrations for the 1-day conference can be done here.
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