Korean solar panel firm to hire 470 at $171M Georgia plant

Arizona-based Solarcycle said Thursday that it would hire more than 600 workers in Cedartown, Georgia for a factory opening in 2026. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

A Korean solar panel maker announced Thursday that it will expand its presence in Georgia, building a new $171 million plant next to an existing factory in Dalton.

The new plant will open in the first half of 2023 and will hire 470 people, Qcells, a unit of Hanwha Solutions, said in a written statement. The company already has 750 workers at its existing northwest Georgia factory.

In 2019, Qcells opened a 300,000-square-foot (28,000-square-meter) factory in Dalton that assembles 1.7 gigawatts of solar modules each year. The company said it is the largest solar panel factory in the Western Hemisphere. The new factory will have a capacity of 1.4 gigawatts. Once the second plant is built, Qcells will control almost a third of all American solar module assembly, the company said.