Summit Ridge Energy’s 2.5-megawatt Speedway community solar project south of Joliet, Illinois (Business Wire)

A record-setting supply agreement between solar hardware builder Qcells and project developer Summit Ridge Energy was announced last week, indicating that the incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act are already driving the deployment of domestically sourced renewable energy infrastructure.

The 1.2-gigawatt panel deal is the largest equipment purchase for community solar in U.S. history, the two companies said in a release. It will spur the construction of 2.5 million solar panels that will likely be deployed in hundreds of proposed projects across Illinois, Maine and Maryland. Summit Ridge Energy expects the first 200 megawatts to be installed before the end of this year.

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