Dive Brief:
- An advanced materials manufacturer will spend upwards of $147 million to build a new facility in Cartersville, Georgia, to supply Qcells' solar manufacturing plant next door, the governor’s office announced last week.
- Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia, Inc. will be the only company in the U.S. to make solar encapsulant film, which protects cells against environmental stressors, according to the news release.
- “The products we make are an important piece of the supply chain puzzle,” CEO Inhwan Kim said in a statement. HAGA secured a Georgia site certified for accelerated development and expects the facility to come online in summer of 2024.
Dive Insight:
The investment by Hanwha Advanced Materials is central to Qcells’ $2.5 billion expansion plans in Georgia.
“Qcells is doubling down on building a complete, domestic solar supply chain, and this recent investment is critical to making this happen,” Qcells North America President HG Park said in a statement. “Working with Hanwha Advanced Materials, our customers will soon be able to confidently know that the solar they buy from us was made right here in America.”
Many solar companies are announcing plans to set up or expand operations in the U.S., sparked by clean energy production incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. However, investments have largely focused on panel assembly, leaving a need for the parts that go into them.
Hanwha, the parent company of HAGA and Qcells, is also upping its investment across the solar supply chain. The company recently became a leading shareholder in REC Silicon which produces polysilicon, a key feedstock for solar.
