Qcells Cartersville to Become Largest US Solar Cell
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- Qcells has started making solar cells at its Cartersville, Georgia factory, on track to become the largest solar cell factory in US history by Q3 2026, and the first such full-stack facility built domestically in over a decade.
- Cartersville is the only US site where every major solar panel component — ingots, wafers, cells, and modules — is made under one roof; its module assembly line is already at full capacity, turning out 16,700 panels a day.
- At full output, the Cartersville plant will produce 3.3 GW each of ingots, wafers, and cells annually, plus 3.5 GW of modules, bringing Qcells' total Georgia module capacity to 8.6 GW per year — enough to power roughly 1.3 million US homes.
- Combined with the company's Dalton facility, which tripled module capacity to 5.1 GW in late 2023, Qcells expects to employ nearly 4,000 people across Bartow and Whitfield Counties in Georgia.
- Qcells is the only US solar manufacturer positioned to claim the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit at every stage of production, and its Cartersville-made modules qualify for the 10% Domestic Content Bonus under the Investment Tax Credit.
- Global CEO Andy Park said domestic production 'gives our customers greater certainty on price, supply, and tariffs, and a product they can trust from start to finish,' framing the plant as a hedge against import disruptions.
Why it matters: Qcells is the first US manufacturer in over a decade to build a full ingot-to-module solar supply chain domestically, giving project developers using its panels a clear path to the 10% Domestic Content Bonus and Section 45X credits that competitors can't fully access — directly reducing tariff and import-disruption risk for the 1.3 million homes' worth of capacity it will supply.
