First Solar to Accelerate American Thin Film PV Innovation

First Solar, Inc. announced that it plans to invest approximately $270 million in a dedicated research and development (R&D) innovation center in Perrysburg, OH. The new facility is believed to be the first of its scale in the United States and is expected to accelerate American leadership in the development and production of advanced thin film photovoltaics (PV).

The new R&D center will be located near First Solar’s existing Perrysburg manufacturing facility, covering an area of approximately 1.3 million square feet. It will feature a high-tech pilot manufacturing line allowing for the production of full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem PV modules. Contigent upon permitting and pending approval of various state, regional and local incentives, the facility is expected to be completed in 2024.

“With a record shipment backlog and consistent demand for our modules, we face the twin challenges of optimizing existing and planned production capacity to deliver on our commitments, while ensuring that our technology roadmap does not lose momentum,” said Mark Widmar, CEO, First Solar. “This investment allows us to create an R&D sandbox separate from our commercial manufacturing operations, ensuring that we can accelerate innovation without the cost of taking mission-critical tools offline.”

First Solar, which has already invested more than $1.5 billion in R&D, currently operates a dual purpose manufacturing line at its Perrysburg facility which handles both commercial production of solar modules and the company’s product development efforts. The line, however, cannot handle both activities simultaneously.

“We expect that this new facility will play a pivotal role in solidifying America’s leadership in the development and responsible production of high-performance thin film photovoltaic semiconductors,” said Markus Gloeckler, CTO, First Solar. “This facility will be designed with the future in mind and we expect that it will directly enable the next generation of advanced photovoltaics.”

First Solar is unique among the world’s ten largest solar manufacturers for being the only US-headquartered company and only manufacturer of thin film PV modules. The company’s consistent investment in developing cadmium telluride (CadTel) since 1999 has made the semiconductor the second most common PV technology in the world after crystalline silicon, while safeguarding vital intellectual property related to the semiconductor material and its unique manufacturing processes.

First Solar also recently announced an investment of up to $1.2 billion in scaling production of American-made, responsibly-produced solar modules, expanding the company’s US manufacturing footprint to more than 10 gigawatts (GW)DC by 2025.

In addition to its Ohio manufacturing facilities, First Solar also operates factories in Vietnam and Malaysia, and is building its first new manufacturing facility in India, which is scheduled to begin operations in the second half of 2023. On completion of its expansion plans in the United States and India, the company expects to have over 20 GWDC of annual global manufacturing capacity in 2025.