ELIZABETHTOWN, Kentucky, March 13 (Reuters) - U.S.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday clean energy

investments in parts of the country with an historical reliance

on coal have more than doubled to $4.5 billion per month due to

Biden administration tax credits that target such communities.

In excerpts of remarks to be delivered in Kentucky, Yellen

highlighted new Treasury Department research that also shows

clean energy investment in other communities has risen to $3.5

billion per month - a $1 billion increase - due to the

incentives in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Yellen is visiting Kentucky, a heavily Republican state that

Democratic President Joe Biden is not expected to win in the

Nov. 5 U.S. election, to promote a growing supply chain for

electric vehicle (EV) battery production that he touted in his

State of the Union address to Congress last week.

"We've seen investments grow significantly. Companies have

announced almost $650 billion in investments in clean energy and

manufacturing across the country since the start of the

Administration," Yellen said in the excerpts.

Yellen is visiting Advanced Nano Products, a South

Korean-owned battery materials manufacturer that has invested

$49 million in a new factory in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.

The facility will supply carbon nanomaterials to the $5.8

billion BlueOval SK battery manufacturing complex under

construction a few miles to the south by Ford Motor Co ( F ) and South

Korea's SK Group that will eventually employ more than 5,000

workers. Japan's AESC is also building a $2 billion battery

factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky that will employ 2,000

people.

All of these facilities are taking advantage of IRA clean

energy manufacturing tax credits that provide up to 30% of the

investment costs, with a 10% bonus if located in a community

historically dependent on fossil fuel energy or one that is

economically disadvantaged. They also will benefit from consumer

EV tax credits of up to $7,500 on the purchase of vehicles that

meet U.S. production and battery content requirements.

Kentucky accounted for just under 5% of U.S. coal production

in 2022, ranking it fifth among the states producing the fossil

fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Yellen's visit is aimed at highlighting the growing EV

investments in the state. So far this year, she has promoted

Biden's economic agenda in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.

She told Elizabethtown-area business leaders that the clean

energy economy "is at the heart of our economic agenda" and the

administration's incentives would fuel private investments that

will build 21st century industries including EVs, green energy

and semiconductors."