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The outgoing Biden administration has finalized funding for two Korean-invested companies that will pump more than $1.5 billion in federal money into Georgia and advance two projects poised to employ thousands in the state.
Absolics, which makes glass substrates for semiconductors, has taken delivery of $75 million award from the Commerce Department under the CHIPS and Scientific Act, a more than $50 billion law focused on driving American semiconductor production.
The grant will help fund the 120,000-square-foot plant being built in Covington on the same site where parent company SKC set up shop making plastic films nearly 30 years ago.
Absolics has committed to investing $600 million and hiring more than 400 — that figure does not include more than 1,000 temporary jobs supported during the construction process.
The stable funding also provides the underpinning for more research and development, a spokesperson said in the Commerce Department news release this week.
Solar panel manufacturer Qcells, meanwhile, closed a $1.45 billion loan that the company has indicated will help it compete with Chinese products as it invests to bring more of the solar supply chain to the United States.
Already the largest panel maker in the U.S. thanks to its Dalton factory, Qcells is spending another $2.2 billion to expand for a third time there while bringing online a new Cartersville plant that will kick-start domestic production of components like ingots, wafers and solar cells. In April, Qcells, owned by Korea’s Hanwha, reportedly also shut down its Chinese production to focus on the U.S. market.
Both the Absolics grant and the Qcells loan were previously announced as having received preliminary approval but were delivered in December.
The projects must continue reporting progress to the government on their respective environmental and community commitments, including guaranteed spending on job training in partnership with local technical colleges.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Qcells is also eligible for tax credits for every U.S.-made panel it sells, with the rates increasing based on the proportion of components that were sourced domestically.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff wrote key provisions of the credit in a failed bill that was later incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Both Mr. Ossoff and fellow Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock were on hand for an event in May to announce the Absolics CHIPS Act funding.
Georgias has benefited from the clean-energy largesse of the Biden administration, with Korean firms splashing out billions on electric-vehicle and battery plants across the state.
Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, has pointed out that some of these projects, including Hyundai’s Meta Plant near Savannah, were announced before the IRA came into existence.
Walking a tightrope, companies have taken pains to credit both the Biden administration’s support and Georgia’s welcoming business environment for their investments.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to dismantle the $7,500 clean-energy vehicle tax credit designed to incentivize domestic assembly of cars and sourcing of batteries and the elements used to make them.
It remains to be seen whether the new administration will prioritize repealing the IRA, which would take an act of Congress, or taking other measures to walk back the Biden climate legacy.
From the sources:
- Learn more about the CHIPS funding for Absolics
- Read the Qcells release on the $1.45 billion in funding
- Read the text of the Inflation Reduction Act
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