The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has issued a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion to Qcells, a North American manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar panels. This loan guarantee will fund Qcells’ new solar supply chain facility in Cartersville, Georgia, which will produce ingots, wafers, cells, and completed solar panels.
Set to be the largest ingot and wafer production plant ever built in the US, this facility will restore crucial components of the domestic solar supply chain. This will also be the first fully integrated silicon-based solar manufacturing plant established in the US in over a decade, addressing significant gaps in domestic solar manufacturing.
The project is anticipated to create around 1,200 construction jobs and, once operational, will provide 1,950 full-time jobs in Cartersville. An economic review from the Cartersville-Bartow County Department of Economic Development indicates that this investment will indirectly generate nearly 6,800 jobs in Bartow and Whitfield Counties and is projected to yield over $2 billion in sales output, stimulating the regional economy.
When fully operational, the facility is expected to produce 3.3 GW of solar panels annually, enough to supply half a million American households, thus resulting in reduction of over 5 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.
The Cartersville plant will be the first vertically integrated factory in the U.S. to produce ingots, wafers, cells, and panels all in one location in more than ten years, reinforcing domestic supply chains and creating new economic opportunities for the local community and surrounding areas. Qcells will also manufacture larger-format wafers, which will reduce costs and enhance product performance.
Furthermore, this project will support the growth of the US solar industry by bringing production capacity for solar components back to the US, reducing reliance on imports from China and Southeast Asia, and enhancing the resilience of the domestic supply chain while lowering costs for customers and communities nationwide.