US cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film solar module manufacturer First Solar has acquired a new facility in Ohio to support its distribution operations.
The 1.2 million square foot facility in Troy Township, Ohio will serve First Solar’s manufacturing footprint in the state, which comprises three module production facilities with around 6GW of nameplate capacity. First Solar also has an expanded research and development (R&D) centre under construction in Ohio, due to be completed this year.
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“As we prepare to expand our Ohio capacity by almost a gigawatt this year, there’s a need for our logistics and distribution capabilities to scale to match manufacturing growth,” said Mike Koralewski, chief supply chain officer of First Solar.
“We intend to use this facility to ensure the efficient and timely shipping of modules to our customers, repurposing it into a dedicated distribution hub for the largest solar manufacturing footprint in the Western Hemisphere.”
As of the third quarter of 2023, First Solar’s backlog of module supply orders had surpassed 80GW. This built on news from April that the company had sold its entire US production capacity through 2027. PV Tech head of research, Finlay Colville, published a blog late last year which predicted that First Solar could be the only profitable large-scale solar module manufacturer in 2024, alongside predictions that this year could see a downturn in fortunes for the largest polysilicon-based solar manufacturers.
Outside of Ohio, First Solar has started the ball rolling on two other US module manufacturing sites in Alabama and Louisiana. By the time of their completion in 2026, First Solar said that it intends to have reached 14GW of nameplate production capacity in the US.
Earlier this month the company inked a pair of tax credit transfer agreements (TCTAs) with finance tech company Fiserv. The deals were signed under the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) Section 45X legislation on advanced manufacturing production credits.
Elsewhere, First Solar announced that it had begun production at a new 3.3GW manufacturing facility In India.