US thin-film manufacturer First Solar has opened a 3.3GW new manufacturing plant in India.
Located in Tamil Nadu, the manufacturing plant produces First Solar’s Series 7 thin film cadmium telluride (CdTe) modules. First Solar said the modules were developed at its research and development centres in the US and optimised for the Indian market.
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In addition to producing modules, the manufacturing plant houses India’s first solar PV recycling plant capable of providing closed-loop semiconductor recovery for use in new modules. The recycling plant also recovers other materials such as aluminium, glass and laminates.
The manufacturing plant represented an investment of about US$700 million, of which US$500 million came from previously announced US International Development Finance Corporation funding. It is also First Solar’s sixth operational manufacturing plant. Prior to this new addition, the company produced modules in the US, Malaysia and Vietnam.
First Solar also claimed that the modules produced in the manufacturing facility boast one-fourth of the carbon and water footprint when compared with crystalline silicon solar panels produced in China.
Tamil Nadu’s minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce Department T R B Rajaa said the manufacturing plant “sets a high bar for sustainability and advanced manufacturing” and supports India’s ambition to become self-sufficient in solar technology.
In September 2023, First Solar broke ground on a new 3.5GW fully integrated manufacturing plant in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, representing US$1.1 billion in investment. The first shipments of First Solar’s Series 7 modules are expected to leave the new plant in the first half of 2026.
As of the end of 2023, First Solar boasted a nameplate capacity of over 16GW. It also expects to have 25GW of global annual nameplate capacity by 2026.
PV Tech’s head of research Finlay Colville published an article in November 2023, stating that First Solar could be the only profitable volume PV module supplier in 2024. In the piece, Colville explained the timing of First Solar’s probable golden year in 2024 and why the concurrent c-Si downturn could be a catalyst in forcing policymakers and other key industry stakeholders to reset their global competitive strategies going forward.