Qcells has agreed to supply the tech giant Microsoft with 12 gigawatts of solar panels that will be built at its second north Georgia factory, in what the companies say is the largest such deal in U.S. history.
Last year, Qcells announced it had reached a deal to provide Microsoft with 2.5 gigawatts of solar capacity, enough to power 400,000 homes. The new agreement, which runs through 2032, is a major expansion of that partnership: Counting the 2.5 gigawatts that was previously announced, Qcells will now provide Microsoft with enough solar modules to power 1.8 million homes annually over the next eight years.
The deal gives Qcells’ still-under-construction Cartersville plant a major customer for the panels it will build when it opens later this year.
Unlike its existing Dalton factory — which recently completed an expansion allowing it to crank out 30,000 panels a day — the Cartersville factory will boast a fully-integrated solar manufacturing supply chain, capable of producing everything from solar ingots and wafers to cells and finished panels. The company has said the new plant will create 2,000 jobs in and around Bartow County.
