Korean-owned solar PV manufacturer Qcells has signed an agreement with tech firm Microsoft to supply 12GW of modules and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services through 2032.
Qcells said modules under this agreement – one of the the largest in the company’s history – will be supplied by Qcells’ new production plant in Cartersville, Georgia, which will be completed in the summer of 2024. The production plant is part of Qcells’ US$2.5 billion investment plan announced last year, building a fully integrated US solar manufacturing supply chain and aiming to manufacture solar ingots and wafers.
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Qcells added that the latest agreement included a 2.5GW module and EPC services commitment announced in January 2023. Under the previous agreement, Qcells provided modules and EPC services for projects across the US, where Microsoft had a power purchase agreement in place.
This agreement will also help Microsoft meet its goal of covering 100% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy by 2025.
“Our expanded agreement with Qcells is designed to drive large-scale domestic production of solar modules essential to advancing a resilient US supply chain and clean energy economy,” said Bobby Hollis, vice president of energy at Microsoft.
Qcells said that it is “working on building a US solar supply chain while producing sustainably-made solar modules”, while Microsoft continues to purchase renewable energy to meet its sustainability goals of being carbon negative by 2030. Therefore, both companies will bring an estimated 1.5GW of modules a year to projects that Microsoft has contracted through 2032.
Additionally, silicon materials producer REC Silicon signed a supply agreement in September 2023 with Qcells to supply high-purity fluidised bed reactor (FBR) granular polysilicon, produced from REC Silicon’s idle facility in Washington.
Based on the ten-year agreement, REC Silicon will supply Qcells with its high-purity granular production from the facility at Moses Lake, Washington. REC Silicon said the total value of the agreement will fluctuate depending on market prices, but it is estimated to be around US$3 billion.
