The Department of Energy closed a $1.45 billion loan guarantee Thursday for a major planned solar manufacturing factory in the U.S. South.
Run by South Korean firm Hanwha Q Cells, the plant in Cartersville, Georgia, will produce 3.3 gigawatts of finished panels annually along with ingots, wafers and cells. That could power a half-million homes and create nearly 3,000 direct jobs, according to DOE.
“The facility will be the largest ingot and wafer plant ever built in the United States and will reestablish critical parts of the domestic solar supply chain,” the department’s Loan Programs Office said in a statement.
The LPO also said the project will “help build the U.S. solar industry while reshoring production capacity for solar components that are largely produced in China and Southeast Asia.”
