First Solar Leads Industry with Validated Environmental, Social Performance

According to its 2024 Sustainability Report, which was released today, First Solar, Inc. has established new industry benchmarks including verifiable leadership in ultra low-carbon solar technology, high-value reycling, respect for human rights, and transparent reporting.

Headquartered in the United States, First Solar is the largest solar manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere and the world’s largest high-value solar panel recycler.

“As we celebrate 25 years of First Solar in 2024, we also celebrate 25 years of an unwavering commitment to the principles of Responsible Solar, which embodies sustainability, improves people’s lives, has zero tolerance for human rights abuses, and meaningfully supports the fight against climate change,” said Mark Widmar, CEO of First Solar.

“The results of building our company on a principled foundation are apparent from our verifiable leadership in environmental and social performance and reporting,” added Widmar. “The third-party validated benchmarks that confirm our leadership are essential to further differentiate ourselves from the competition while challenging the industry to do better.”

First Solar’s advanced, highly differentiated manufacturing process allows it to transform a sheet of glass into ready-to-ship thin film solar panels in approximately four hours. Its uniquely American cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor leads the industry in environmental performance and competitiveness, allowing the company to produce solar panels with a carbon footprint up to four-times lower than those utilizing crystalline silicon cells made from Chinese polysilicon, even if assembled into panels in the United States.

The technology’s leadership was recently validated when First Solar’s Series 6 Plus and Series 7 TR1 became the world’s first solar panels to achieve an EPEAT Climate+ designation by meeting the ultra-low-carbon threshold of ≤400 kg CO2e/kWp, enabling greater avoided emissions across their lifetime.

“As the Clean Energy Buyers Institute warned, if the solar manufacturing industry continues its business-as-usual approach by relying on cheap, subsidized coal electricity to produce polysilicon, it runs the risk of overtaking aluminum production in carbon intensity,” said Pat Buehler, chief product officer, First Solar. “We must act now to change course by actively reducing the carbon footprint of solar technologies while also investing in high-value recycling that addresses the end-of-life management of decommissioned solar panels in a sustainable manner. Our industry must embody sustainability, not simply pay lip service to it.”

First Solar operates high value recycling facilities in the US, Germany, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam, representing 88,000 metric tons of nameplate annual recycling capacity at the end of 2023, capable of recycling approximately 2.6 million modules per year.

The company established the industry’s first global recycling program in 2005 and has recycled nearly 400,000 metric tons of PV modules to date, more than any other PV recycler or PV recycling program. In 2023, First Solar’s high value module recycling program recorded an average global material recovery rate of 95%, including glass, aluminum, steel, laminate, and semiconductor material.

“We continue to reinforce that our industry’s work in driving the energy transition and fighting climate change does not serve as a credit against its social and human rights responsibilities,” said Samantha Sloan, vice president of Global Policy, Sustainability, and Marketing, First Solar.

First Solar remains the only major solar manufacturer to have not just conducted independent third-party, on-site social audits across its global manufacturing footprint in 2023, but also to have achieved the highest possible rating.

The audits conducted under the Responsible Business Alliance ’s (RBA) Validated Assessment Program (VAP) awarded the company’s operational facilities in the US, Vietnam, and Malaysia with platinum status as of December 2023. Not reliant on Chinese crystalline silicon supply chains, First Solar does not source materials from Xinjiang, China.

Since the start of this decade, First Solar has embarked on a $4.1 billion manufacturing expansion strategy that has seen it grow from approximately 6 GW operational in 2020 to over 16 GW global nameplate capacity at the end of 2023. The company currently operates manufacturing facilities in the US, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. T

wo factories, one in Alabama, which is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2024, and the other in Louisiana , which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2025, are projected to take the company’s global footprint to more than  25 GW of annual nameplate capacity in 2026.

Additionally, the company is investing approximately half a billion dollars in research and development infrastructure in Ohio, including the Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation, which was commissioned earlier this year.