In 1883, an American inventor designed the world’s first solar panel. In the 1950s, the U.S. formulated the first silicon solar cells, and in the decades following, it spent more on solar R&D than the rest of the world, and dominated the global solar market.
But today, America seriously lags on solar production. So much so that a new solar plant being built in Cartersville, Georgia will be the only one in the country to construct panels directly from raw materials.
Most solar parts are made abroad, largely by China, and are generally inexpensive—which isn’t great for the United States’ energy independence. But the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has spurred a new drive to bring production back to the U.S. That’s especially true in Georgia, where Republican Governor Brian Kemp has been a big proponent of clean energy in the state, even saying he wants Georgia to be the “electric mobility capital of the world.” While Republicans have pushed back against Biden’s climate agenda (and none voted for the IRA), the large-scale job creation being modeled in Georgia could ultimately sway them.
The Cartersville plant, which is about 40 miles from Atlanta, is owned by South Korean company Qcells. It built an original plant in Dalton, just south of the Tennessee border, in 2019. That one, like most other solar plants in the U.S., essentially assembles already made solar parts, imported from Korea and Malaysia, into panels.
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