Hanwha Q Cells Opens 1.7GW Module facility in the US

Q cells, or Hanwha Q Cells as its known here, has opened a 1.7GW module manufacturing fab in the US. The South Korean firm, which operates in the top end of the market usually with more premium priced  offerings, picked Dalton, Georgia, for the fab unit. The US market, which is projected to add almost 13 GW of solar capacity this year, has been powered strongly by both the corporate market as firms go for renewable power to burnish their green credentials, and state level action in states like California, which have taken on the Federal government to move faster with deployments.

The fab at Georgia has been touted as  the ‘largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere’ by Hanwha. Set up with an investment of close to $200 million, the facility started commercial operations earlier this year with the delivery of Q.PEAK Duo L-G5 modules.  With this plant, the total cell manufacturing capacity of Q cell effectively moves beyond 10GW globally. making it the leading global producer of solar cells by a margin, for now.

Jeffrey Kessler, a representative from US President Donald Trump’s Commerce Department, attended the formal opening along with Hanwha officials.The Dalton fab joins manufacturing sites in South Korea, China, Malaysia and Germany.

The Dalton unit  has an annual solar module production capacity of 1.7 GW and is expected to ramp up production to 12,000 panels daily by the end of 2019.

The facility is expected to keep Q Cells competitive and close to a key market , as the US continues to ramp up solar capacity, driven by a discerning corporate and industrial market. Production  from this Dalton unit is expected to feed that demand, starting with projects for Facebook Inc as well as Shell.

While specific jobs data was not available on this plant, we expect actual jobs impact to be around 500+, as new plants continue to be driven by increasing automation.