Qcells wraps up Dalton expansion
Recruiting underway for Bartow campus, due in late 2024
This week’s announcement that Qcells’ latest expansion in Dalton is completed checked off a major part of the company’s several billion dollar expansion in North Georgia.
It likewise was a reminder that another key phase is well underway in the Highland 75 industrial park off I-75 in Bartow. That one is designed to bring another 2,000 jobs to our area, with hiring underway for production late next year.
“Things are moving smoothly and we are still aiming to produce there in (the fourth quarter of) 2024. Similar to Dalton, we are recruiting right now so we are ready to go once it’s finished,” says Qcells’ Marta Stoepker of the Bartow campus.
Announced last January, Qcells is one of two massive “green energy” projects underway here. The SK On/Hyundai electric vehicle battery plant — a $5 billion investment with 3,500 jobs — is flying together off U.S. 411 between Cartersville and the Floyd County border. It is due in summer 2025.
For now, the spotlight is on the just-completed expansion in Dalton, Qcells’ third development in that area.
The project adds 2 gigawatts of solar capacity to the Dalton operation, bringing the full factory’s output to more than 5.1 gigawatts.
An accompanying media release states: “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.”
The Dalton expansion added 510 jobs. Employees will 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.
The Cartersville campus will create solar ingots, wafers, cells and finished panels. Once Cartersville is finished, both Georgia campuses are expected to produce 8.4 million gigawatts, believed to be enough to power 1.3 million homes a year.
“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.”
The Qcells updates were praised both by state and federal leaders.
Said Gov. Brian Kemp: “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.”
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Things are moving smoothly and we are still aiming to produce there in (the fourth quarter of) 2024. Similar to Dalton, we are recruiting right now so we are ready to go once it’s finished.”
Qcells’ Marta Stoepker of the Bartow campus
From U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.: “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. Our state is emerging as the advanced energy capital of the nation...”
And from U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.: “With Qcells’ multibilliondollar factory expansion in North Georgia up and running, Georgians are seeing the real-time benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act and its clean energy provisions as our state continues to embark on a green energy revolution.”
Qcells opened its first factory in Georgia in 2019 and hired 750 people to manufacture 1.7 gigawatts of solar energy. It has continued to expand here thanks to strong demand.