Korean solar panel manufacturer Qcells has signed a deal for nearly 1M SF of warehouse space close to its upcoming Cartersville plant.

Qcells North America leased 843K SF at Busch Commerce Center, a newly constructed, 1.2M SF distribution center developed by MDH Partners and CF Real Estate Investments, NAI Brannen Goddard President Nathan Anderson told Bisnow.

Anderson, along with Managing Director Darren Butler, represented the landlords in the transaction. Heritage Georgia Realty brokers Ray Kim and June Yeo represented Qcells, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate Hanwha.

Qcells plans to use the warehouse for distribution of the products that will come out of its nearly completed factory in Cartersville, Anderson said. The plant is expected to produce solar ingots, wafers, cells and finished solar panels.

Qcells opened its first Georgia solar panel factory in 2019 in Dalton, 50 miles north of Cartersville, and the firm expanded that factory to manufacture 5.1 gigawatts of panels annually.

The combined Dalton and Cartersville plants represent a $2.5B manufacturing investment in Georgia, and at full capacity, the two facilities could churn out 46,000 panels a day, enough to produce more than 8 GW of power annually.

Qcells' parent company also announced last March that its Hanwha Advanced Materials Georgia subsidiary would develop an additional $147M plant in Cartersville to develop encapsulant film for solar panels.

Solar cell production has boomed in the U.S. over the past decade by an annual rate of 22%, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, in part due to federal incentives such as the solar investment tax credit and state incentives for homeowners and businesses. There are more than 220 solar companies in Georgia, and they have invested a total of $6.5B and produced more than 5,300 jobs, according to SEIA.