On October 18, 2023, Qcells, part of Seoul-based Hanwha, announced that it had completed its Dalton, Georgia, solar panel factory expansion.[1] The company added 2 GW of solar capacity to the factory, bringing the factory’s total output to more than 5.1 GW per year. The Dalton factory will now manufacture nearly 30,000 solar panels on a daily basis. According to the company, the factory is now the largest manufacturing plant of its kind in the Western Hemisphere and the first solar panel expansion since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Qcells CEO Justin Lee cited the IRA and Georgia’s collaboration as making the investment possible. The expansion is the first phase of a $2.5 billion investment Qcells announced in January.

Qcells said the expansion created 510 new jobs. It will assemble two new solar products: the Q.TRON G2 residential solar panel and a bifacial panel for commercial and utility markets. The company opened its first factory in Georgia in 2019 and initially hired 750 people to manufacture 1.7 GW of solar per year. Qcells said its first investment was made possible in part by the Section 201 tariffs imposed on solar cells. Qcells also has a planned factory located in Cartersville, Georgia, that will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels.

[1] https://us.qcells.com/blog/qcells-north-america-completes-dalton-factory-expansion/