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This week, South Korea’s Qcells said it would supply 12 gigawatts (GW) of American-made solar panels to Microsoft through 2032.

Under the agreement, which the companies said is the largest of its kind, Qcells will manufacture solar panels for Microsoft at its new US$2.5 billion factory in Georgia.

It will also enable Microsoft, which was seeking a reliable panel provider to reduce supply chain risks, to achieve its goal of powering its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.

Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice president for energy, said, “How do we really make sure that we can meet those goals in this kind of an environment, as we see others coming in and doing the same thing? We have to really undertake things in a very strategic and thoughtful way.”

The two companies first agreed to a 2.5-gigawatt contract last year, under which Microsoft will increase its total commitment to 12 GW, which can power some 1.8 million homes.

Its collaboration with Microsoft to produce silicon ingots, wafers and cells, as well as the modules themselves, will help establish a solar supply chain in the U.S. that can compete with China, Qcells said.

Currently, most panels assembled in the U.S. use components made in Asia.

Jihyun Kim, an executive vice president at Qcells, said, “We are the only ones that are really building up the full supply chain. And this is thanks to the partnership that we are having with Microsoft.”

Incentives in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act aim to reduce reliance on overseas-produced goods by boosting the production of clean energy components in the U.S.