Hanwha Solutions to expand production of solar cells and modules in the United States and Korea – pv magazine USA

May 12, 2022Anne Fisher and Emilian Bellini

Hanwha Solutions, a Korean company that owns Qcells, has announced a $ 320 million investment plan to expand solar production in the US and Korea. The company said it would seek to spend $ 170 million to build a 1.4 GW solar module manufacturing facility in the U.S. at an unspecified location. Qcells already operates a 1.7 GW module plant in Dalton, Georgia. Due to the fact that the new plant is expected to be operational as early as the first half of 2023, Qcells ’total production capacity in the United States will exceed 3 GW, or about one-third of the current solar module production capacity in the United States.

The company also announced its plan to invest $ 150 million in expanding honeycomb production capacity in Korea, bringing total production capacity in Korea to 5.4 GW.

“Currently, our company has a capacity of 12 GW for both cells and modules, which are distributed throughout Korea, Malaysia, China and the United States,” said CEO Justin Lee. pv magazine at a press briefing for the Smarter E event in Munich, Germany.

The investment is aimed at increasing the supply of solar modules while in the US the supply chain is in total from the COVID-19 pandemic to uncertainty against circumventing the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act. In addition, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a sharp rise in fossil fuel prices, sparking a surge in demand for renewable energy.

“Growing uncertainty tells us that ensuring reliable, sustainable energy has become more important than ever,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Hanwha Qcells. “To do this, Qcells will increase the supply of renewables from a variety of sources and find cleaner ways to produce energy. In this way, we will promote both energy security and zero emissions. “

Hanwha said it would make additional investments in the United States, including plates and elements, pending “the implementation of a long-term, sustainable policy designed to stimulate solar energy production.”

“Ensuring confidence in policy is crucial to achieving our goal of restoring the solar energy value chain in the United States,” Lee said. “With our tireless efforts to provide reliable, sustainable energy, we will do our best to strengthen Qcells as a reliable choice for the US solar market.”

Hanwha Solutions is committed to a clean manufacturing process and reports that it will provide low carbon polysilicon from manufacturers around the world. In March, the company became the largest shareholder REC Silicona polysilicon manufacturer headquartered in Norway that operates mass production facilities in Moses Lake, Washington, where REC Silicon uses hydropower to produce solar polysilicon.

«We are currently still purchasing about 95% of our ingots and plates from China, but that will change soon, as we also recently signed a $ 1.2 billion deal with Korean manufacturer OCI, which is increasing production capacity in Malaysia, ”he said. Lee. “However, we do not plan to resume our own production of polysilicon in Korea,” he said.

In other news, Qcells is working with Samsung Electronics to introduce a smart heating system to hit the market in June. The system combines Qcells solar panels and an energy storage system with Samsung’s Eco Heating system, originally designed for the European market.