First Solar is inaugurating the first phase of a new manufacturing facility in Gaffney, South Carolina, a $330 million plant that brings the final production processes for its Series 6 Plus modules onto US soil, Solar Power World reported on 28 October.
The site adds 3.7 GW of annual manufacturing capacity and takes the company's total US capacity to 17.7 GW per year.
What the plant does
When First Solar announced the project in November 2025, it said the facility would transform thin-film solar cells produced by its international fleet into fully completed modules. In other words, Gaffney finishes products that start life in First Solar's factories outside the United States.
At the time, the plant was scheduled to begin commercial operations in the second half of 2026. The opening of the first phase in October keeps the project within that window.
Jobs and a second phase
The Gaffney plant currently employs about 500 people. First Solar expects the workforce to reach about 700 by mid-2027, when the second phase of the facility is completed. When the project was announced, the company projected more than 600 new jobs in Cherokee County.
The site builds on First Solar's existing presence in South Carolina, which includes a distribution centre in Duncan and a partnership with Inland Port Greer.
A growing US footprint
Gaffney joins First Solar's three fully vertically integrated factories in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Louisiana. The company also runs research and development centres in Ohio and California.
Unlike the finishing plant, the vertically integrated factories carry out the full production process in the United States. Gaffney adds a different model to the network: completing modules from cells made abroad.
The product
The Series 6 Plus module uses a thin-film cadmium telluride base and reaches 480 W at 19% efficiency. It has aluminium under-mount frames and dual junction boxes. First Solar is also developing a bifacial version that would absorb light on both sides.
Policy backdrop
When the plant was announced in November 2025, First Solar chief executive Mark Widmar credited the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the administration's trade policies with boosting demand for American energy technology. He said the new facility would allow the company to serve the US market with technology that meets the requirements of the Act.
What it means for American developers
For US buyers, Gaffney adds 3.7 GW of domestically finished module supply at a time when First Solar links demand directly to federal policy. Developers who need modules that meet the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's requirements gain another source of supply, and the plant's second phase, due by mid-2027, will show how fast that capacity ramps up. Thin-film cadmium telluride modules also give buyers an option outside the crystalline silicon supply chain. For South Carolina, the plant brings around 500 jobs today and about 700 by mid-2027.
Source: Solar Power World, 28 October 2026; Solar Power World, 14 November 2025
