News: Photovoltaics
14 November 2025
First Solar selects South Carolina for new US production facility
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) module maker First Solar Inc of Tempe, AZ, USA is to establish a new facility in Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina, to onshore final production processes for Series 6 Plus modules initiated by the company’s international fleet. The firm expects to spend about $330m to establish the new facility, which is scheduled to begin commercial operation in second-half 2026. The facility is forecasted to create more than 600 new jobs with an average manufacturing salary of $74,000 per year, approximately twice the per capita income in Cherokee County.
First Solar says that the South Carolina facility — which will directly support American energy affordability goals — was catalyzed by demand for domestically produced energy technology created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump in July. The facility is expected to increase First Solar’s capacity to produce US-made solar technology that is fully compliant with anticipated Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) guidance, by 3.7GW, reaching 17.7GW of annual nameplate capacity in 2027.
“We expect that this new facility will enable us to serve the US market with technology that is compliant with the Act’s stringent provisions, within timelines that align with our customers’ objectives,” says First Solar’s CEO Mark Widmar.
First Solar's investment in Cherokee County will “greatly strengthen the local economy and help advance America's energy independence,” notes South Carolina’s Governor Henry McMaster.
The onshored processes will transform thin-film solar cells produced by First Solar’s international fleet into fully completed modules. The new facility expands the firm’s footprint in South Carolina, which currently includes a distribution center in Duncan, Spartanburg County, and a longstanding partnership with Inland Port Greer. The Gaffney plant will be part of what is already the largest solar technology manufacturing and R&D footprint in the Western Hemisphere and includes three fully vertically integrated manufacturing facilities in Ohio, and one each in Alabama and Louisiana, along with R&D centers in Ohio and California. Altogether, First Solar, which expects to directly employ over 5500 people in the USA by the end of 2026, will have invested about $4.5bn in US-based manufacturing and R&D infrastructure since 2019.
Having manufactured in the USA since 2002, First Solar is the country’s leading PV solar technology and manufacturing company and the only one of the world’s largest solar manufacturers to be headquartered in the USA. By 2027, the firm expects to support over 30,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs across the country, estimated to represent more than $3bn in labor income.
First Solar inaugurates $1.1bn, 3.5GW Alabama CdTe PV manufacturing facility
First Solar commissions Western Hemisphere’s largest solar R&D center
