DALTON, Georgia. (AP) - A South Korean company has started production at a new solar panel plant in Georgia, even as industry leaders say rising Asian imports could hurt efforts to make more solar components in the United States.
Qcells, a unit of South Korea's Hanwha Group, said on Wednesday that it can now produce enough solar panels to generate 5.1 gigawatts of power annually at two factory complexes in Dalton, Georgia in northwest China. That represents about 40% of solar panel capacity in the US, according to figures from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Qcells opened its first factory in 2019 and has since gradually opened a larger factory, in what the company describes as the largest solar investment in US history.
Scott Moskowitz, Qcells' head of market strategy and public relations, told The Associated Press on Monday after a tour of the factory: "As a company, we're really trying to be a global leader and an American leader in solar manufacturing . what else is a milestone."
The company says its new plant is the first solar module factory to begin production in the United States since the climate law signed by President Joe Biden. Qcells' $208 million investment shows once again how federal incentives are fueling a national boom in renewable energy and electric vehicles.
The industry's concern about a flood of cheap solar panels from abroad shows how dependent the solar industry is on federal policy. That's a threat in part because former President Donald Trump, the favorite for the 2024 Republican nomination, is hostile to renewable energy.
Qcells executives say the new plant features more efficient equipment and processes, part of a larger investment aimed at bringing major advances in solar energy production in the United States. A solar panel or module usually consists of solar cells made from wafers cut from blocks. made of polysilicon.
Currently, the company's solar cells are imported from Asia. But 30 miles south of Dalton, in Cartersville, Qcells is building a $2.3 billion complex in Washington state to mine refined polysilicon and produce solar blocks, wafers and cells, as well as 3.3 gigawatts of solar modules. The plant is expected to open in phases starting next year.
No silicon ingots or wafers are currently manufactured in the United States, but the Biden Deflation Act provides additional tax credits for solar equipment made in the United States, allowing manufacturers to take advantage of incentives for each unit of polysilicon and each wafer, cell and module. processing. . do. For example, Qcells earns 7 cents in tax credits for every panel produced in Dalton, or $41.30 for every 590 watt panel produced.
Solar industry executives warn that even with growth, factories will struggle to compete with a new wave of cheap Asian imports. They are again asking federal authorities to investigate whether the solar panels are being sold at unfairly low prices. Previous investigations have led to the imposition of anti-dumping duties on panels produced in China and Taiwan.
Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Manufacturers Coalition for America, a group that includes Qcells, said U.S. officials should not view the increase as a normal market fluctuation. It alleges that Chinese component makers are lowering panel prices to maintain Chinese dominance and stifle US production by shifting cheap modules from Southeast Asian factories.
"It will probably be the number one new energy source in the 21st century," Carr said. "It's already cheaper to install than almost anything else." This is how we can achieve our climate goals. So I think it becomes a real national security issue. "We don't want to let China be the same controller of solar supplies that OPEC is of oil markets."
Qcells sees the current low prices as a "short-term challenge" to achieving economies of scale and serving the market in the long term, Moskowitz said. Beyond trade policy, he said the requirement by federal agencies to buy American-made products and panels produced with fewer carbon emissions could give Qcell a boost.
The policy covers the solar industry. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the plant earlier this year. At the state level, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp clashed with Democratic US Sen. John Ossoff over political credit for electric vehicles and renewable energy investments in Georgia.
"Of all the places Qcells could have gone, they chose to operate and grow in Georgia because of our unmatched assets and the competitive offering we have," Kemp said.
Ossoff and Democratic Sen. Georgia's Raphael Warnock notes that they have created incentive components favoring Qcells, with an emphasis on federal policy.
"Our state is becoming the nation's leading energy capital thanks to federal infrastructure and manufacturing policies that favor Georgia more than any other state," Ossoff said in a statement.
Qcells, for its part, appreciates the help of the state and federal government.
"It takes a whole-of-government approach to get these markets moving," Moskowitz said.
