Solar giant Qcells to furlough and lay off workers, cites supply chain woes
Solar manufacturer Qcells said Friday it’s temporarily furloughing employees and reducing pay and hours at its two northwest Georgia factories while it deals with supply chain kinks the company says were caused by trade law enforcement.
Qcells, which operates factories in Dalton and Cartersville, said the furloughs and shift reductions will impact about 1,000 employees, just over a quarter of its Georgia-based workforce. The affected employees, who will maintain full benefits, were notified Friday afternoon. The company said it expects to bring those workers back as it resumes full production “in the coming weeks and months.”
At the same time, Qcells said it’s also laying off about 300 workers employed through staffing agencies. It’s not yet clear when — or if — those staff will be rehired.
“Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, today we shared with our employees that (human resources) actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels,” Qcells spokeswoman Marta Stoepker said in a statement.
Qcells is one of the crown jewels of Georgia’s emergent clean energy ecosystem. Its Dalton plant is the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the Western Hemisphere.
The company says its supply chain problems are tied to enforcement of a 2021 federal law passed with bipartisan support to crack down on China’s use of forced labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act seeks to block goods made by Uyghurs and China’s other ethnic minorities in conditions the U.S. Department of Homeland Security compares to “modern slavery.”
Stoepker said the company does not include any Chinese polysilicon in its solar panels. But this summer, for the first time, a large shipment of Qcells polysilicon cells used to make solar panels at its Georgia factories was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Other Qcells shipments have been halted in recent months, too. Most have since been released and the rest are expected to be allowed into the U.S. soon, Stoepker said.
The forced labor law has been on the books since President Joe Biden was in office, but the crackdown has ramped up under President Donald Trump’s administration. In August, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement the agency would enhance enforcement.
In the meantime, the holdups have forced Qcells, to “scale back production,” Stoepker said.
CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the staffing cuts.
U.S. solar manufacturers have for years had to rely on facilities abroad to source raw materials for solar panels.
Qcells is working to change that.
The company began producing solar panels at its Cartersville plant last year, but phase two of the factory will feature the country’s first fully-integrated solar supply chain. On top of finished panels, the facility will be able to produce solar wafers from refined polysilicon, then turn those into photovoltaic cells, all under one roof. Currently, most of those materials are imported from overseas.
Stoepker said Qcells is committed to completing phase two of the Cartersville factory and expects it to be online next year.
The customs issue is the latest disruption to hit the solar industry since Trump took office.
Steep tariffs have made it more expensive to source components, from solar cells to the metal racks that hold panels in place. Federal tax credits for solar and other types of clean energy will also now expire years ahead of schedule after the passage of Trump’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Some, like a 30% tax break for residential rooftop solar systems, now expire as soon as Dec. 31.
About the Author
Drew Kann is a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering climate change and environmental issues. His passion is for stories that capture how humans are responding to a changing environment. He is a proud graduate of the University of Georgia and Northwestern University, and prior to joining the AJC, he held various roles at CNN.
