Qcells America Completes 2 GW Plant Expansion In US

Qcells, the clean energy solutions provider, has announced the successful completion of its Dalton, Georgia, factory expansion. Qcells added 2 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity to Dalton, bringing the full factory’s output to more than 5.1 GW. The firms claims that the Qcells Dalton factory is the largest manufacturing plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and the first solar panel plant expansion since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This addition marks the first phase of Qcells’ historic $2.5 billion investment announced in January 2023.

The completed Dalton expansion created 510 additional solar factory jobs and will also assemble two new solar products: the Q.TRON G2 residential solar panel and a bifacial panel for the commercial and utility markets. Qcells’ Dalton factory will manufacture nearly 30,000 solar panels per day.

Beyond Dalton, the investment includes the development of a fully-integrated solar supply chain factory in Cartersville, Georgia. The highly anticipated Cartersville factory will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells and finished panels.

By 2024, between the Dalton and Cartersville facilities, Qcells anticipates its solar production capacity to reach 8.4 GW a year, enough to power 1.3 million homes annually with clean energy.

“Completing this factory marks the third expansion we’ve made in Dalton, and it’s just the beginning of Qcells’ larger mission to build a fully integrated solar supply chain in America,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Qcells. “The Inflation Reduction Act and the efforts of Georgia’s economic development team helped make these ambitious plans possible, and with it thousands of careers in clean energy. As we build new solar technology from Dalton and prepare for the start of Cartersville, it is critical that our local to federal leaders continue to work not only with us, but the larger industry to ensure our collective investments deliver for communities for decades to come.”

“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 in 2019,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “This latest milestone is a testament to the hard work of the Dalton community and the relationship we’ve built on the state level with this innovative company. We look forward to the new jobs this expansion will bring for Georgians in that area.”

“When I wrote and passed the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act, it was with this exact goal in mind. I thank Qcells for their continued investment in Georgia,” U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff said. “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 in the country.”

Qcells opened its first factory in Georgia in 2019 and hired 750 people to manufacture 1.7 GW of solar. This initial investment was made possible in part by the Section 201 tariffs imposed on solar cells. As the nation’s demand for solar grew, so did Qcells’ investment in its Dalton facility. Last year, Qcells announced a plan to add 1.4 GW to its manufacturing output and hire 535 more people.

This now completed third expansion, as well as Qcells investments across the full solar value chain, following the passage of the Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act within the IRA and made possible with support from Georgia’s economic development team.