When the solar panel giant Qcells opened its first Georgia factory in Dalton in 2019, it represented a significant leap forward for domestic clean energy production.
In an industry long-dominated by China, Qcells’ Dalton plant — the largest facility of its kind in the Western Hemisphere — represented the biggest single effort yet to establish solar manufacturing roots in the U.S.
Now, about 35 miles south, on the outskirts of Cartersville, the company’s second — and arguably more ambitious — project is nearing completion.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
During an exclusive visit by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to the Bartow County construction site this week, Qcells said it is on track to begin producing finished solar modules as soon as April. The rest of the factory should be online by the end of the year, the company said.
As significant as the Dalton plant still is, it is the Cartersville plant’s other capabilities — beyond assembling panels — that the company and solar trade groups say could be a gamechanger for U.S. solar manufacturing.
Once complete, the new factory will feature the country’s first fully integrated supply chain for solar manufacturing.
On one side of the factory, refined polysilicon will be heated and molded into massive, round cylinders called ingots. In another section, cylinders will be sliced into wafers barely thicker than a human hair. Next, chemical treatments will transform the wafers into photovoltaic cells that can convert the sun’s rays into electricity. Finally, about a half mile away at the opposite end of the plant, the cells will be assembled into finished solar panels.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Historically, U.S. solar manufacturing has relied on separate factories — mostly overseas — at each step along the way. The Cartersville plant, code named “Project Redeemer” by the company, brings them all under one roof.
“The Dalton factory was a huge deal, in that it was the largest solar factory of its kind when we built it,” Scott Moskowitz, Qcells’ senior director of market strategy and industry affairs, said in an interview Wednesday in Cartersville. “But this (Cartersville) factory marks a bigger milestone. We will be able to get raw material from the United States and turn it into a finished solar panel in the United States.”
Exactly one year ago, Qcells announced it would spend $2.5 billion to dramatically expand its footprint in Georgia, in what the company called the largest investment in clean energy manufacturing in U.S. history.
The company said President Biden’s signature climate and healthcare law — the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — helped spur their expansion. The law, passed in 2022 with key votes from Georgia’s Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, offers an investment tax credit for clean energy manufacturing and billions more in domestic production incentives to encourage companies to build their plants and products in the U.S.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Phase one of Qcells’ plan reached the finish line last fall, when the company completed an expansion of its existing Dalton factory, boosting its maximum annual output 5.1 gigawatts, or 30,000 panels a day.
Clearing and grading at the Cartersville site didn’t begin until last March, but construction progress has been swift. The walls of the module side of the plant are complete and machinery will soon be installed. This week, the steel frame and roof appeared nearly finished on the wafer and ingot sections, too.
The Cartersville factory will be able to produce 3.3 gigawatts of solar annually. Combined with Dalton’s output, Qcells expects to have an annual production capacity in Georgia of 8.4 gigawatts, enough to power 1.3 million homes. Between the two factories, Qcells says it will eventually employ 4,000 workers in Georgia.
Meanwhile, Qcells’ parent company — the South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group — has made other investments to move more of its supply chain to the U.S.
Adjacent to Qcells’ Cartersville plant, a subsidiary is building a specialized factory to produce laminate for the company’s solar cells. And late last year, a dormant polysilicon facility in Washington state restarted production with the help of a $200 million investment by Hanwha. The raw material will be used in Qcells’ solar panels.
Still, many of the headwinds remain that have led to the downfall of previous U.S. entrants into the global solar market.
The biggest is China.
Estimates vary, but Chinese companies still control more than 80% of the global production for all components needed in the panel production process. The cheap cells and panels produced in China have long plagued other manufacturers. Just last year, a flood of Chinese panels sent solar prices plummeting in Europe and in the U.S.
But there are also reasons for optimism in the industry.
With global temperatures climbing because of human-caused climate change, demand for the clean energy solar provides has never been higher. Just this week, the Energy Information Administration — the federal government’s independent energy data monitor — forecast that solar would be the leading source of growth in the U.S. power sector through 2025.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
On Monday, Qcells signed an agreement with Microsoft to supply the tech giant with 12 gigawatts of solar panels from its Cartersville factory, in what the companies say is the largest such deal in U.S. history.
Moskowitz said it is critical for U.S. solar manufacturing to succeed. For the company, it means greater resilience and better control over their raw materials. Customers, he said, will benefit. too.
“They will know where the product comes from, and know that they will have a stable, U.S. supply that isn’t subject to supply chain constraints, trade issues or anything else,” he said.
Mike Carr, the executive Director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition — which represents solar manufacturers like Qcells — said China’s stranglehold on the market and ongoing trade wars have made life difficult for domestic producers. Still, Carr said that with some tweaks to trade policy and the power of the IRA, U.S.-made solar should be able to compete.
“There’s no reason why we can’t have a sustainable, viable industry that continues to drive down costs to the consumer and continues to be the world’s leading technology in addressing climate change,” Carr said.
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at ajc.com/donate/climate/
