Hanwha Q CELLS Begins Solar Module Production at Cartersville Plant Following Dalton Facility in the U.S.

Completion of North American Solar Module Value Chain
Additional 186 Billion KRW IRA Benefits This Year
Expanding to 1 Trillion KRW Annually Next Year
Combined Production Capacity Largest Locally

Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division (hereinafter Hanwha Q CELLS) has started commercial production of solar modules at the new Cartersville plant following the expansion of its Dalton plant in Georgia, USA. The combined module production capacity of the two plants is 8.4GW per year, making it the largest in the United States. This amount of power can supply approximately 1.3 million households in the US for one year.

Hanwha Q CELLS announced on the 7th that it has completed the construction of the module production line at its Cartersville plant in Georgia and has begun full-scale production. The Cartersville plant is one pillar of Hanwha Q CELLS' integrated solar production complex in the US, called the 'Solar Hub.' It will have an annual solar module manufacturing capacity of 3.3GW. Starting next year, the Cartersville plant will also begin commercial production of ingots, wafers, and cells at an annual scale of 3.3GW. The Dalton plant, another pillar of the Solar Hub, completed its expansion at the end of last year, tripling its module production capacity from 1.7GW to 5.1GW annually. Hanwha Q CELLS announced in January last year that the total investment for building the Solar Hub was 3.2 trillion KRW.

Exterior view of Hanwha Q CELLS Cartersville plant in Georgia, USA [Photo by Hanwha Q CELLS]

Once all production lines at the Cartersville plant are fully operational from next year, Hanwha Q CELLS will become the only company in North America to manufacture the entire core solar value chain. Thanks to the new and expanded US plants and increased module efficiency, Hanwha Q CELLS' global annual production capacity will reach 3.3GW for ingots and wafers, 12.2GW for cells, and 11.2GW for modules by next year.

Hanwha Q CELLS is benefiting from incentives such as the Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (AMPC) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which the US government enacted to support its domestic renewable energy industry. With the Cartersville plant expected to produce about 2GW of modules this year alone, the tax credit benefits are anticipated to increase by $140 million (approximately 186 billion KRW) within the year. Starting next year, when ingots, wafers, cells, and modules are all manufactured in the US, the tax credit benefits are expected to grow further, reaching up to 1 trillion KRW annually. The consolidation of production lines across the value chain is also expected to reduce logistics costs and improve efficiency.

Hanwha Solutions SolarHub Dalton Plant and Cartersville Plant Location [Image Source=Hanwha Q CELLS]

Hanwha Q CELLS is focusing on building the Solar Hub, its core solar production base in the US, by halting operations at its solar plants in China and South Korea. The company completely stopped operations at its Eumseong plant in Chungbuk last December and plans to cease solar module production and sales at its Chidong plant in China next month. The company explained that this decision was made to improve overall module production operational efficiency.

Hanwha Q CELLS is also considering a plan to maximize IRA benefits by sourcing the entire value chain domestically within the US, including using polysilicon manufactured with eco-friendly hydropower energy at the Moses Lake plant in Washington state by polysilicon company REC Silicon. Hanwha Solutions, which includes Hanwha Q CELLS as a business division, acquired REC Silicon in 2022 and signed a long-term purchase agreement last September to supply eco-friendly polysilicon for 10 years.

Additionally, Hanwha Q CELLS plans to receive EVA sheets from a plant being constructed near the Cartersville plant by Hanwha Advanced Materials, a subsidiary of Hanwha Solutions.

Lee Gu-young, CEO of Hanwha Q CELLS, said, "We are smoothly building the Solar Hub, Hanwha Q CELLS' integrated solar production complex. We will strengthen our leading position in the US and other markets by simultaneously increasing manufacturing capacity and expanding our renewable energy business areas."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.