In 2025, First Solar began production at a 2.4-million-square-foot Louisiana plant. 1 year later, it can turn raw glass into 12 finished panels every minute

A huge solar factory in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, is doing something that sounds deceptively simple: raw sheets of glass enter one end and finished solar panels emerge from the other. The First Solar plant covers roughly 2.4 million square feet and cost about $1.1 billion. It began making panels in July 2025, and at full production, the facility is designed to turn out about 12 panels every minute.

But the factory's real significance goes beyond its size. Its production model is closely tied to the push to expand American solar manufacturing while reducing reliance on imported components, as per a report by AutoNotion.

How quickly can the Louisiana factory make solar panels?

The facility sits on the grounds of the Acadiana Regional Airport and is designed as a vertically integrated manufacturing operation. Instead of receiving completed solar cells and assembling them into panels, the plant starts with sheet glass and produces a finished Series 7 module.

The process takes roughly four and a half hours from the arrival of the glass to the completed panel.

At full capacity, the factory is expected to add 3.5 gigawatts of annual nameplate capacity. The 12-panels-a-minute figure also fits with that production target when calculated against the wattage of the Series 7 modules.

The materials used in the process include glass from Illinois and Ohio, while steel from Mississippi is fabricated into back rails in Louisiana.

Unlike many conventional solar panels, the Series 7 design does not use an anodized aluminum frame. Instead, it is mounted on galvanized steel rails, making the product intended for utility-scale projects rather than residential rooftops. The plant also uses computer vision and deep learning to identify defects during manufacturing. Here, the AI-enabled technology is being used for quality control rather than replacing the workforce.

More than 700 people were working at the facility at its ribbon cutting, with 826 workers targeted by the end of 2025. Average compensation was around $90,000, as per a report by AutoNotion.

Why is the plant important for American solar?

The factory's location matters because of a major policy change scheduled to take effect on December 4. The Commerce Department opened a Section 232 national security investigation into polysilicon and its derivatives in July 2025. On August 6, 2026, the resulting proclamation established minimum import prices for certain solar products and added a 15 percent tariff on most of the covered products, with the new measures applying to goods entering the country from December 4.

The policy is aimed at a solar supply chain in which the United States remains heavily dependent on imports of ingots, wafers and cells.

First Solar publicly supported the action. The company also noted that Chinese producers control more than 90 percent of global polysilicon supply.

The Louisiana facility, however, follows a different technology path. Its cadmium telluride, or CdTe, modules do not depend on polysilicon, ingots, wafers or crystalline silicon cells, as per a report by AutoNotion.

A panel manufactured in New Iberia is also a domestic product, meaning the import price floor does not apply to it in the same way it applies to imported modules.

Is the Louisiana solar supply chain completely domestic?

Not quite. First Solar's own quarterly filing for the period ending June 30, 2026, points to another dependency. China introduced export controls in February 2025 covering products containing tellurium, which First Solar identifies as one of the main components of its CdTe modules.

Tellurium is available from several sources, but China is a major producer. Chinese exporters generally need a license from the country's Ministry of Commerce to ship it.

That leaves the Louisiana factory largely outside the Chinese polysilicon supply chain while still exposed to Chinese tellurium supplies.

First Solar has been working on recycling as one way to address that issue. The company has operated its own photovoltaic recycling program for more than two decades and reported an average material recovery rate above 95 percent in 2025.

Where are all those Louisiana panels going?

First Solar ended the second quarter with a contracted backlog of 45.1 gigawatts stretching through 2030, valued at roughly $13.6 billion before technology adjustments.

Around 41 gigawatts of that backlog carries some form of domestic content requirement, helping explain the value of manufacturing panels in the United States.

The company reported $1.06 billion in net sales during the quarter and net income of $423 million, or $3.92 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA reached $644 million, while cumulative global module sales passed 100 gigawatts.

Chief Executive Mark Widmar also identified Cypress Creek, Terra-Gen and Panamint among recent deals, together representing about 5 gigawatts, with roughly half connected to Google.

Panamint is also behind a project involving two million First Solar panels at a working Texas coal mine.

Meanwhile, First Solar's sixth American facility in Gaffney, South Carolina, is being developed as a finishing operation rather than another glass-to-module plant. The company expects its total U.S. nameplate capacity to exceed 17 gigawatts by 2027 once all six domestic facilities are ramped.

That leaves the Louisiana factory in an unusual position. It is already built, staffed and producing panels, while the import policy that strengthens the position of domestic solar manufacturing does not take effect until December.

The 2.4-million-square-foot building may be enormous, but its importance is ultimately measured by what happens inside: raw glass goes in, complete solar modules come out, and at full rate, the line is designed to produce 12 of them every minute.

FAQs

When did the Louisiana plant begin production?
First Solar began making panels there in July 2025.

How many panels can it make?
At full rate, the plant is designed for about 12 panels a minute.