Strengthening America’s PV solar supply chains, starting with the largest ingot & wafer plant ever built in the U.S.! (see: https://lnkd.in/gJGzMd-u) Today, LPO announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $1.45 billion to Qcells USA Corp.—a leading North American crystalline silicon solar manufacturer—to finance the first vertically integrated solar manufacturing facility in the U.S. to produce ingots, wafers, cells, and panels under one roof in over a decade.
The loan guarantee will support Qcells’ solar supply chain facility in Cartersville, Georgia, which will produce ingots, wafers, cells, and finished solar panels. The facility will be the largest ingot and wafer plant ever built in the U.S., helping to address gaps in the domestic solar manufacturing supply chain and reinforcing the United States’ status as a global clean energy leader. The Qcells facility will also make larger-format wafer sizes that lower costs and increase product performance to benefit consumers.
Once fully operational, the facility is expected to produce 3.3 GW of solar panels per year, enough to supply panels to half a million American households, reducing emissions from power generation by more than 5 million tons of CO2e per year, which will help the nation reach the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to deliver good-paying, high-quality job opportunities to communities across the country, this project is also expected to create approximately 1,200 construction jobs and, upon completion, will support 1,950 full-time operations jobs.
As with all conditional commitments that LPO offers, it’s important to note that while this announcement demonstrates an intent to finance the project, the expected U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) financing will only be issued pending the satisfaction of certain conditions—including final legal, contractual, technical, and financial requirements—that the conditional commitment specifies.
LEARN MORE:
• What is a Conditional Commitment & How is it Different from a Loan or Loan Guarantee? https://lnkd.in/gkhfhYHZ
• More about the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Investing in America” Agenda: WhiteHouse.gov/Invest
• Read about other LPO project announcements: https://lnkd.in/g23s_Uk4
• How LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program is financing innovative energy projects across sectors: https://lnkd.in/gN2jDVbw
