The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – a US utility headquartered in Knoxville – has ordered 279MW of First Solar’s cadmium telluride thin-film solar PV modules to outfit its Lawrence County Solar Project in Alabama, due to come online in 2027.
“Through our work with First Solar, TVA will continue to integrate more renewable generation into our overall portfolio with solar technology developed and manufactured in America,” said Roger Waldrep, vice president of TVA major projects.
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The exact model of the modules shipped was not confirmed, but the company has been signing deals for both its Series 6 Plus and upcoming Series 7 modules for shipment in 2026-27.
In May TVA said that it was planning to double its solar capacity, and last year it issued a call for 5GW worth of clean energy projects to be operational by 2029.
As of April this year, First Solar has sold its entire US capacity backlog through to 2026, which is over 70GW of supply, and has begun signing deals for the second half of the decade. Notably, earlier this month it signed a 5GW supply agreement with Israel-headquartered developer Energix Renewables.
The company – one of the major US-based module manufacturers – recently secured a US$1 billion five year revolving credit facility, and said that it plans to add 8GW of new module production capacity between 2023-26. It has announced Lawrence County, Alabama – the same county as TVA’s 279MW project – as the location for its 3.5GWdc, US$1.1 billion manufacturing facility due to start production in 2025.