The federal government is making its first loan to a crystalline silicon solar plant, loaning $1.45 billion to support a South Korean company’s bid to build up key parts of the solar supply chain inside the United States.
The loan from the U.S. Energy Department, announced Thursday, will be key to funding a $2.2 billion complex that Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, is building. The company plans to take polysilicon refined in Washington state and make ingots, wafers and solar cells — the building blocks of finished solar modules — in Cartersville, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, besides offering an extra tax credit on American-made solar equipment, lets manufacturers earn incentives for every unit of polysilicon they refine and every wafer, cell and module they make.
Read this story and all our reporting for free — forever.
Sign up for our newsletter to support WABE’s mission of delivering independent, in-depth journalism — and hand-picked NPR stories that matter to Atlanta.
We will never share your email address with others. How does your newsletter sign-up support WABE and Public Media...
