BREAKING: Solar giant Qcells says Dalton factory expansion is complete - The Atlanta Journal Constitution
BREAKING: Solar giant Qcells says Dalton factory expansion is complete
Solar panel manufacturer Qcells announced Wednesday that it has completed the expansion of its existing Dalton factory, the largest plant of it kind in the Western Hemisphere.
The new manufacturing muscle means the factory will now be able to produce more than 5.1 gigawatts of solar panels each year — 30,000 solar panels a day. To keep pace, the company said it has added 510 new jobs. By early next year, the factory will employ 1,800 people.
The expansion was part of a $2.5 billion growth plan the company announced in January months after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Biden’s signature climate and healthcare law.
In addition to growing the Dalton facility, which first opened in 2019, the company is building a second factory about 50 miles south in Cartersville.
Qcells is owned by the Korean conglomerate Hanwha Solutions.
Editor’s note: This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
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On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”