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Vice President Kamala Harris toured an expanding solar panel facility in northwest Georgia on Thursday, where she announced a historic order for millions of Georgia-built panels and credited federal policies for new clean energy jobs.
The visit is part of President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” tour — a precursor to a likely 2024 re-election campaign — where Biden and Harris are highlighting green technology facilities across the county to tout their legislative agenda in blue-collar communities.
Here are five things to know about Harris’ visit, the solar panel order and the politics at play:
1. Largest community solar purchase in U.S. history
Harris announced Qcells, a South Korean-based solar panel company with a manufacturing facility in Whitfield County, received an order for 2.5 million panels as part of a massive community solar project.
Qcells and Virginia-based Summit Ridge Energy committed to deploying 1.2 gigawatts of community solar power, which generate enough electricity to power 140,000 homes and businesses. It currently takes Qcells’ Georgia facility roughly eight months to build the solar panels required to fulfill that amount of energy.
Harris called it the largest commitment of its type in U.S. history.
