US government will loan $1.45 billion to help a South Korean firm build a solar plant in Georgia

The U.S. Department of Energy is loaning $1.45 billion to support a South Korean company’s bid to build up key parts of the solar supply chain inside the United States. The loan announced Thursday will be key to funding a $2.2 billion complex that Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, is building northwest of Atlanta. The company plans to take polysilicon refined in Washington state and make ingots, wafers and solar cells, the building blocks of finished solar modules. The plant in Cartersville currently has about 750 employees assembling solar panels and is projected to have 2,000 when complete.