First Solar to open new 3.7GW US manufacturing plant in 2026

No location has been disclosed so far for the new manufacturing facility, but the company said it will onshore the finishing of Series 6 modules started at international factories. First Solar is forecast to invest approximately US$300 million in the construction of the new facility, of which nearly US$260 million is capital expenditure.

“Such an investment is expected to enable additional production in the US market that we expect will be fully compliant with forthcoming FEOC guidance as well as improve the gross margin profile of our sales by reducing tariff charges and logistics costs associated with importing finished goods,” said Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar.

Widmar added that the modules produced at the newest facility would still provide domestic content point benefits and qualify for the Section 45X manufacturing tax credits.

The construction of a new US manufacturing facility follows the company’s reduction in production at its overseas facilities. According to First Solar, this is due to a series of factors, including the dominance of Chinese PV modules in Europe’s market, the Indian market’s rejection of Southeast Asian products, a general imbalance of supply and demand for Southeast Asian products and the application of certain tariffs on modules imported into the US.

Widmar added that during the third quarter of 2025, the company reduced production at both its Vietnam and Malaysia facilities, as was unveiled earlier this year. When asked if the company would consider covering the entire annual nameplate capacity from the Vietnam and Malaysia manufacturing plants – which is at 7GW – with the new US facility, Widmar said the company would continue to “evaluate whether there’s an opportunity to bring more into the US using the front-end capacity we have internationally.

“We’ll have opportunities to better reassess that once we understand the outcome of 232 in particular and the FEOC guidance that we’re looking forward to, and we’ll make that decision at that time.”

The cadmium telluride (CdTe) module manufacturer began commercial operations of its Louisiana facility in August 2025, 19 months after beginning construction. At the time, the facility was expected to have an annual nameplate capacity of 3.5GW once fully operational and would produce the company’s Series 7 modules.

With the start of commercial operations of the module facility in Louisiana during the third quarter of 2025, First Solar increased its annual nameplate capacity to 23.5GW across the facilities in the US, India, Vietnam and Malaysia. In addition to the Louisiana facility and the newly announced one, First Solar also has manufacturing plants in Alabama and Ohio in the US. The latter is also home to the company’s research and development centre.

On top of its ongoing production of both Series 6 and Series 7 modules, the company continues its research and development of its thin-film semiconductor technology, with a focus on the use of perovskite thin-films. This includes the construction of a dedicated perovskite development line at its Ohio facility.

Furthermore, in Q3 2025, the company has expanded protection of its suite of TOPCon technology patents, filing three separate requests that the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) deny “petitions filed by affiliates of Canadian Solar, JinkoSolar and Mundra that seek to invalidate our US TOPCon patents,” said Widmar.

Module sales reaches 5.2GW in Q3

First Solar produced 3.6GW of thin-film modules in Q3 2025, 2.5GW in the US and the remaining 1.1GW at its international facilities. This is a slight decrease both year-on-year and quarterly, due to an issue at the Alabama facility, according to Widmar.

“Two of our domestic glass suppliers faced manufacturing disruptions that limited our ability to operate at full capacity, which impacted Q3 production by approximately 0.2GW.

“Corrective actions have been implemented at both suppliers and our US glass supply base is again positioned to meet our requirements,” explained Widmar.

However, the production of modules for the first nine months of 2025 remains above last year, as shown in the chart below.

Despite a decrease in module production, First Solar sold almost 5.3GW of modules in Q3 2025, up from the 3GW sold during the same period a year ago and the highest of any quarter to date. For the period of January through September 2025, First Solar sold 11.8GW modules, while its total bookings backlog sits at 54.5GW in Q3 2025.

The higher shipment in Q3 2025 pushed up the company’s net sales for the quarter, which reached US$1.6 billion, a US$0.5 billion increase from the previous quarter and nearly double from the same period in 2024.

Guidance updated downwards in the higher end

First Solar has revised most of its 2025 financial year guidance downward, reducing the upper threshold for net sales, gross margin, and volume sold. The lowest expected guidance for both net sales and gross margin have been revised slightly upwards.

First Solar said the revised guidance is due to the solar glass supply chain issue, which is now resolved, and a module contract termination “for customer default” with affiliates of oil and gas giant BP, according to the company. The contract between both parties involved the supply of 6.6GW of modules.

Moreover, First Solar filed a lawsuit against BP Solar Holding LLC and its affiliate Lightsource Renewable Energy Trading, on September 30, following BP and its affiliate’s “failure to cure multiple breaches of contractual obligations”.

The net sale guidance has been revised down from between US$4.9-5.7 billion to between US$4.95-5.2 billion, while the guidance for gross margin has been updated from US$2.05-2.35 billion to US$2.1-2.2 billion.

Regarding the volumes sold, First Solar’s guidance was revised down by nearly 2GW in the upper end from 19.3GW to 17.4GW, while the lower end prediction remains at 16.7GW.

Earning calls transcript from Seeking Alpha.