The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Parts supplier building $147M Cartersville plant
Near solar giant Qcells, facility will add 160-plus jobs.
On the heels of solar giant Qcells’ plans to open a mas- sive new manufacturing facil- ity in Cartersville,asupplier announced Thursday it will invest $147 million to build a plant just down the road to make critical parts for the company’s panels.
The new plant from Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia is set to open in 2024 and will create more than 160 jobs, including engi- neering and manufactur- ing line operator positions, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said in a release. HAGA and Qcells share the same par- ent company, South Koreabased conglomerate Hanwha Group.
The HAGA plant will make a specialized film coating for Qcells panels that helps increase their durability. The facility will be the only one in the U.S. making the mate- rial, Kemp’s office said.
The plant is a key part of Qcells’ plan to build the first fully-integrated solar man- ufacturing supply chain in the U.S. in Georgia, Qcells North America’s president, HG Park, said in a release.
“Qcells is doubling down on building a complete, domestic solar supply chain,
this recent investment is critical to making that hap- pen,” Park said.
Earlier this year, Qcells announced it would spend $2.5 billion on a massive expansion of its Georgia production footprint and bring 2,500 jobs to the state. At the time, the company and federal and state officials billed it as the largest investment in clean energy manufacturing in U.S. history.
As part of that expan- sion, Qcells is building a new 3.3-gigawatt plant in Cartersville, about an hour northwest of Atlanta. The company broke ground on that facility earlier this year and the plant is set to open its production lines in 2024. At the same time, the company is working on expand- ingits existing factory in Dal- ton to add 2.1 gigawatts of additional capacity.
Once both projects are complete, Qcells will be able to produce 8.4 giga- watt s of solar pan e l s in Georgia, enough to meet the demands of roughly 30% of the solar installations cur- rently planned around the country.
Qcells has said thepassage of President Joe Biden’s signature climate change and health care law — known as the Inflation Reduction Act — last year helped spur the company’s new invest- ment in Georgia. The votes of Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators — Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — were key to the bill’s passage in a nar- rowly divided upper chamber, and Ossoff wrote several of the law’s solar provisions.
In a statement on HAGA’S plant, Biden connected the dots between the IRA and the new investment in Georgia. The IRA provides $10 billion in tax credits for building new solar manufacturing facilities, plus billions more for manufacturers to make components for solar panels, batteries and wind tur- bines in the U.S., among a host of other clean energy incentives.
“With the support of Senators Warnock and Ossoff and Georgia House Democrats, clean energy manufacturing announcements in Georgia are creating thousands of good-paying jobs making solar panels and components here at home and tackling the climate crisis,” Biden said in a statement.
During Kemp’s tenure in office, Georgia has pitched itself as a major hub for clean energy and electric vehicle manufacturingprojects. With generous incentive packages, the state has secured billions in investments from companies like Rivian, Hyundai Motor Group and SK Battery America — along with a constellation of suppliers — to build new plants and bring tens of thousands of jobs in Georgia.
I n a st ate men t, Kemp framed the arrival of Qcells’ new supplier as another sign of the state’s growth as a major clean energy player.
“Georgia is leading the nation in attracting next-generation jobs,” Kemp said. “Since we first welcomed Qcells to our state in 2018, we’ve announced more than 4,000 related jobs for hard-working Georgians. We’re proud that Hanwha Advanced Materials is adding to that growing number as it becomes a valued member of the Bartow County