Hanwha Group Vice President Kim Dong-kwan speaks about Hanwha QCells’ Solar Hub Project at the company’s solar panel module manufacturing plant in Dalton, Georgia, US, on April 6, 2023. (Hanwha Solution)
Hanwha Group Vice President Kim Dong-kwan speaks about Hanwha QCells’ Solar Hub Project at the company’s solar panel module manufacturing plant in Dalton, Georgia, US, on April 6, 2023. (Hanwha Solution)

Hanwha QCells, the solar power division of Hanwha Solution, said Wednesday it was approved for a $1.45 billion loan from the US Department of Energy to fund its construction of the largest solar panel production base in North America.

The loan is included in the government’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which offers low-cost funding to companies developing clean-energy projects at an interest rate equivalent to the US 10-year Treasury bond, currently around 4 percent. The loan matures on Jan. 15, 2031.

Hanwha QCells will invest the funds into its Solar Hub Project to build mass-scale solar panel-producing facilities -– expanding the capacity of its plant in Dalton, Georgia, and constructing a new plant around 80 kilometers away in Cartersville -- by 2025. The annual capacity of the two plants is projected at 8.4 gigawatts. The 3 trillion won ($2 billion) project aims to set up a key value chain in solar panel production, spanning from ingots and wafers to cells and modules.

Following LG Energy Solution and SK On, Hanwah QCells became the third Korean company to have received the go-ahead under the loan program. A joint venture by Samsung SDI and Stellantis was approved for ATVM funding the same day as Hanwah QCells. Once the solar hub base starts operation, the company is expected to qualify for a tax credit worth approximately 1 trillion won under the US Inflation Reduction Act, though this might change if President Donald Trump scraps the climate legislation.

Industry sources say the ATVM loan will still offer a boon for Hanwha Group Vice President Kim Dong-kwan, who is also CEO of the strategy divisions at Hanwha Solution and Hanwha Aerospace, and CEO of the investment division at Hanwha Impact. Kim is the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn and the likely successor to the Hanwha Group leadership.

In 2020, Hanwha Group merged its three energy subsidiaries -- Hanwha Chemical, Hanwah QCells and Hanwha Advanced Materials -- into Hanwha Solution.