Glass supplier company NSG Group has opened a solar glass production line to support cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film PV manufacturer First Solar.
The company has converted a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) facility, in the US state of Ohio from a facility of Pilkington North America, a member of the NSG Group. PV Tech reached out to NSG Group regarding the annual nameplate capacity of that new solar glass production line.
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Production of TCO glass is expected to begin in March 2025. This will support the expansion strategy of First Solar, which has a manufacturing facility and a research and development (R&D) centre in Ohio.
The solar glass manufactured at the facility will use an online coating technology in which a conductive oxide on the glass surface is formed during its passage through the float line. According to the company, online coating enables cost-effective production of coated glass in high volume.
US-made solar glass manufacturing
This is the latest development in US solar glass manufacturing, which has seen an increase in manufacturing announcements in the past few months.
Solar glass manufacturer Canadian Premium Sand has recently expanded its footprint in Northern America with plans to build a solar glass facility in the US with an annual nameplate capacity of 4GW. This would add to the 6GW solar glass facility it is currently building in Manitoba, Canada and slated to begin operations in mid-2027, according to the company’s website.
Solar recycling firm Solarcycle also aims to build a solar glass facility in the US, which would be located in Polk County, Georgia. The facility would use recycled materials from retired solar panels to produce new solar glass, a “first-of-its-kind” according to the company at the time.
Production is expected to begin in 2026, with an annual nameplate capacity of between 5GW and 6GW. The project represents a US$344 million investment. More recently the company signed a supply deal with US chemical producer Genesis Alkali to support the production of solar glass for its Georgia facility.
Since announcing the planned facility, Solarcycle signed glass supply deals with US solar manufacturer Silfab, Canadian PV manufacturer Heliene and the US arm of Chinese solar producer Runergy.
As more module capacity is being added in the US, other parts of the solar supply chain have also benefited from the surge in solar manufacturing since the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act. This includes key components such as solar glass, frames, backsheets and encapsulants as explained by Michael Parr, executive director of the Ultra Low Carbon Solar Alliance, in a guest blog for PV Tech last year.
