During her visit to Qcells' Dalton fab, US Vice President Kamala Harris announced the largest community solar module order in the country between Qcells and Summit Ridge Energy (SRE) saying majority of panels under the deal will be produced within the US thanks to Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
SRE will purchase these panels from Qcells to power over 350 projects over the next 4 years. Initial 200 MW will be installed before the end of 2023. On completion, these projects will generate enough clean energy to power around 140,000 homes and businesses.
The community solar company expects its projects supporting low to moderate income (LMI) households to also qualify for IRA tax credits.
With this, SRE will be able to speed up its construction pipeline and support domestic production of solar modules. The agreement also comprises 20 MWh energy storage capacity.
"Community solar is key to bringing affordable, reliable clean energy to communities large and small, urban and rural, low-income or working class. The Qcells and SRE partnership will ensure more communities can access the endless benefits solar power offers, including cleaner air, lower energy bills, and more jobs," said CEO of Qcells, Justin Lee.
The deal between SRE and Qcells follows their September 2022 pact for 3 standalone energy storage projects in New York City (NYC) for 12 MW/46 MWh distributed generation capacity with Qcells supplying its energy storage hardware and energy management software for these facilities.
Spurred by the IRA, Qcells is expanding its PV module manufacturing capacity and vertically integrate from wafers to modules to a level of 8.4 GW in the US by 2024-end, and its solar supplier, sister company Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia (HAGA) has also announced a new advanced materials manufacturing facility to produce EVA in the country (see US Solar PV Encapsulant Fab From Hanwha Group).
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