First Solar opens 1.7 GW finishing plant in Gaffney, South Carolina
Victoria Shinder2 min readThin-film modules that start life in First Solar's Southeast Asian factories will now be finished in South Carolina. The company inaugurated the first phase of its plant in Gaffney with a ribbon-cutting on 29 October, pv magazine reports. It starts at 1.7 GW a year and is due to reach 3.4 GW when the second phase is complete in mid-2027.
The $330 million site is a finishing operation: it completes Series 6 Plus modules, with the company's CuRe technology, whose production began at First Solar's international facilities. In July the company said that moving equipment from Southeast Asia to supply Gaffney leaves about 1.8 GW of fully finished module capacity in Malaysia and Vietnam, while the remaining international Series 6 lines send unfinished modules to South Carolina. First Solar cites rising demand for US-made equipment after recent trade measures and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of July 2025 as the reason for the investment.
The company says 500 jobs are filled and nearly 200 more will follow at full production. Gaffney is its sixth US factory, alongside three in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Louisiana. With the second phase, First Solar expects US module capacity of about 17 GW in 2027 and cumulative US manufacturing and R&D investment since 2019 above $5 billion by the end of 2026. Global production is forecast at 16.5 to 17.5 GW this year and 18.9 to 20.5 GW in 2027. Chief executive Mark Widmar noted that the plant was ready less than a year after the site was chosen.
What it means
A finishing plant is the fastest way to turn imported semi-finished product into domestic content for US policy purposes, and the quick build shows how strongly the rules reward that last step. It also means the US capacity figure depends on overseas lines that keep feeding it. First Solar reported its third-quarter results after the market closed the same day, which will show how the shift affects margins.