NEW YORK (AFP) – A South Korea company on Wednesday said that it plans to invest USD2.5 billion in United States (US) solar panel manufacturing in order to take advantage of tax breaks included in US President Joe Biden’s climate plan.
Biden said the plan by Hanwha Qcells would be “the largest solar investment in US history” and create thousands of jobs in the southern state of Georgia.
The project would benefit from Biden’s massive Inflation Reduction Act, a USD369 billion spending plan that includes massive tax breaks for clean energy, including solar power.
The spending bonanza has caused alarm among US trade partners in Europe and Asia who fear the plan will starve their own industries of much needed investment.
The European Union also sharply criticises provisions in the IRA that would limit US tax breaks on buying electric vehicles to cars made in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Hanwha Qcells said it plans to expand the firm’s manufacturing capacity at its plant in the city of Dalton, Georgia, and to build a new plant in Cartersville.
