A | A South Korean company has begun production at a huge new solar panel factory in Georgia even as industry leaders say surging Asian imports could dampen efforts to make more solar components in the United States.Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, said Wednesday that it can now turn out enough solar panels to generate 5.1 gigawatts of power yearly at a two-factory complex in the northwest Georgia city of Dalton. That's almost 40% of U.S. solar panel capacity, according to figures from the Solar Energy Industries Association. Qcells' opened its first factory in 2019 and an even larger plant in phases since, what the company describes as the largest solar investment in American history. “It’s another milestone as we as a company really strive to become a global leader and a U.S. leader in solar manufacturing," said Scott Moskowitz, Qcells head of market strategy and public affairs, speaking with The Associated Press after a plant tour Monday.The company says its new plant is the first solar module factory in the U.S. to begin production since passage of President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation. Qcells' $208 million investment again shows how federal incentives are spurring a nationwide boom in renewable energy and electric vehicles.Industry jitters about a flood of cheap solar panels from overseas show how dependent on federal policy the solar industry remains. That's a threat in part because former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, is hostile to renewable energy.Qcells leaders say the new plant showcases more efficient equipment and processes, part of a much larger investment intended to bring key steps in solar manufacturing to the U.S. A solar panel, or module, is assembled from solar cells most commonly made from wafers cut from ingots of polysilicon. Today, the company's solar cells are imported from Asia. But 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Dalton in Cartersville, Qcells is building a $2.3 billion complex to take polysilicon refined in Washington state and make ingots, wafers and solar cells — in addition to 3.3 gigawatts of solar modules. That plant is scheduled to open in phases starting next year.Currently, no silicon ingots or wafers are made in the U.S. But Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, besides offering a extra tax credit on American-made solar equipment, lets manufacturers earn incentives for every unit of polysilicon they refine and every wafer, cell and module they make. For example, Qcells earns a tax credit of 7 cents per watt for every panel it makes in Dalton, or $34.30 for every 490-watt residential panel made.Even with that boost, solar industry leaders warn, factories will struggle to compete with a new spike in cheap Asian imports. They're again urging federal officials to investigate whether solar panels are being dumped at unfairly low prices. Previous investigations have led to anti-dumping tariffs on panels made in China and Taiwan.U.S. officials shouldn't regard the spike as a normal market fluctuation, said Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, a group that includes Qcells. He argues Chinese component makers are pushing out cheap modules from southeast Asian factories, tanking panel prices to ensure Chinese dominance and smother U.S. manufacturing.“This is likely to be the No. 1 new energy source in the 21st century," Carr said. "It’s already cheaper than pretty much anything else to install. It is the path to meeting our climate goals. So I think it becomes a real national security kind of concern. The way OPEC is in oil markets, we don’t want to allow China to become that same controller of supply in solar.”Qcells sees current low prices as a “near-term challenge" in achieving economies of scale and serving a long-term market, Moskowitz said. Beyond trade policy, he said, requiring federal agencies to buy American-made products and promoting panels produced with fewer carbon emissions could bolster Qcells.Politics envelops the solar industry. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the plant earlier this year. At the state level, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has wrestled with Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff over political credit for electric vehicle and renewable energy investments flowing to Georgia. “Out of all the places Qcells could have gone, they chose to operate and expand here in Georgia because of our unrivaled assets and the competitive package we put together,” Kemp said in a statement.Ossoff and fellow Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock note they authored the component incentives that benefit Qcells, emphasizing federal policy. “Our state is emerging as the advanced energy capital of the nation, thanks to federal infrastructure and manufacturing policies that are benefiting Georgia more than any other state,” Ossoff said in a statement.Qcells, for its part, praises both state and federal assistance.“To build these markets up and to have them work, you need a whole government approach," Moskowitz said.。 ARRAS, France -- France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization, the president’s office said Saturday.Some children and personnel returned to the Gambetta-Carnot school in the northern city of Arras as it reopened Saturday morning, after a schoolday attack Friday that rattled France in a context of global tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.Counterterrorism authorities are investigating the stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said. The suspect is a Chechen who had attended the school and had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization.The government heightened the national threat alert, and President Emmanuel Macron ordered up to 7,000 soldiers deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France, his office said. The “Attack Emergency” threat posture allows the government to temporarily mobilize the military to protect public places among other measures.At the school Saturday morning, police stood guard as adults and children trickled in. Classes were canceled, but the school reopened for those who wanted to come together or seek support. One mother said she came with her 17-year-old daughter in a show of defiance against extremism, and to overcome the fear of returning to a site where children were locked down for hours after the stabbing.The attacker's exact motive remains unclear, and he is reportedly refusing to speak to investigators.For many in France, the attack echoed the killing of another teacher, Samuel Paty, almost exactly three years ago near his Paris area school. He was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen later killed by police.The suspect in this week's attack had been under surveillance since the summer on suspicion of Islamic radicalization, French intelligence services told the Associated Press. He was detained Thursday for questioning based on the monitoring of his phone calls in recent days, but investigators found no sign that he was preparing an attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. French intelligence suggested a link between the war in the Middle East and the suspect’s decision to attack, the minister said. He said authorities have detained 12 people near schools or places of worship since the Hamas attack on Israel, some of whom were armed and were preparing to act. France has heightened security at hundreds of Jewish sites around the country this week.The prosecutor said the alleged assailant was a former student there and repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic during the attack. Prosecutors are considering charges of terrorism-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.The dead educator was Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrols students ages 11-18. Another teacher and a security guard were in critical condition with wounds from the stabbing, police said. The counterterrorism prosecutor said a cleaning worker was also injured. Announcing that the school would reopen Saturday, Macron urged the people of France to “stay united.”“The choice has been made not to give in to terror,” he said. “We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance.”___Charlton reported from Paris. Nicolas Garriga in Arras and John Leicester in Paris contributed.。
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