Hanwha Q CELLS, JinkoSolar unveil updated plans for U.S. manufacturing

JinkoSolar, the worlds largest solar panel manufacturer and Hanwha Q CELLS, part of the Hanwha Group of Korea, have reportedly updated their plans to open manufacturing plants for solar module assembly in the US. Reports show that JinkoSolar, which is continuously increasing its manufacturing capacity for ingot or wafers, solar cells and modules, revealed higher expansion plans for 2018 while announcing the company's Q2 results.
By the end of Q2 2018, the company had attained 9 GW, 5 GW and 9 GW of capacity for the wafer, cell and module production respectively, the reports indicated. As per records, during the Q1 announcements JinkoSolar had stated plans to expand the annual capacity for silicon wafers, solar cell and modules to 9.7 GW, 6 GW and 10.5 GW respectively.
During the unveiling of Q2 results, Kangping Chen, JinkoSolars CEO mentioned that the company was expecting an increase in the production capacity of wafer, solar cell and module to 9.7 GW, 7 GW and 10.8 GW by the end of the year.
A part of the company's expansion plans includes establishing a 400 MW module assembly plant in Jacksonville, Florida, US. Sources close to the matter informed that shipments from this plant are anticipated to commence by the final quarter of this year and the company has already distributed advertisements for around 200 jobs openings in its administration and manufacturing divisions.
Hanwha Q CELLS (Korea), reports suggest, has plans to develop a 1.6 GW module assembly plant in Whitfield County, Georgia which the company will build and operate, to manufacture modules to be exclusively used by SMSL, Hanwha Q CELLS. Operations at this facility are expected to begin in February 2019, the reports further mentioned.
Experts believe that the aforementioned two projects could lead to at least 2 GW of new solar module assemblies could being operational by 2019 in the U.S.