First Solar Opens South Carolina Plant, With 3.4 GW Capacity Planned by 2027

First Solar inaugurated the first phase of a new solar-module production facility in Gaffney, South Carolina, on 28 October 2026. The opening turns part of a previously announced investment into operating industrial capacity, while a second phase is still under construction.

The company says the approximately $330 million site will reach 3.4 gigawatts of annual nameplate capacity when the second phase is completed, which it forecasts for mid-2027. Nearly 500 of an expected 700 jobs have already been filled. Those are company figures and forecasts, not independently measured output or employment results.

What opened, and what remains unfinished

The first phase performs final production processes on Series 6 Plus thin-film modules that begin production in First Solar's international manufacturing network. That distinction matters: the Gaffney plant is not yet a fully self-contained source of every manufacturing step, and the company's description should not be read as evidence that its full supply chain has moved to South Carolina.

First Solar says the second phase will double the facility's annual nameplate capacity to 3.4 GW and add production of its CuRe technology. The wording implies roughly 1.7 GW of nameplate capacity for the first phase, but that figure is Agrilinkage's arithmetic inference from the company's 'double' statement, not a separately disclosed phase-one rating.

Nameplate capacity is the maximum annual output a factory is designed to produce under stated operating assumptions. It is not the same as actual shipments. Ramp-up speed, equipment availability, demand and product qualification can all create a gap between installed capacity and realized production.

Why the 3.4 GW target matters

At full planned capacity, the Gaffney operation would be large enough to supply a meaningful tranche of utility-scale solar development. A 3.4 GW module factory could, in simple capacity terms, furnish panels for several gigawatts of projects each year. Actual project electricity output would depend on geography, system design, weather, grid connection and construction schedules.

The location also changes the structure of First Solar's US manufacturing network. The company already operates production facilities in Alabama, Louisiana and Ohio and research centers in Ohio and California. Gaffney becomes its sixth US facility, according to the company, and adds a southeastern finishing and manufacturing node near major logistics routes.

First Solar says the site was built in less than a year after selection and that its cadmium telluride thin-film technology does not rely on Chinese crystalline-silicon supply chains. That is a strategically important distinction in a market shaped by tariffs, domestic-content rules and concern about concentrated upstream supply. It remains a company claim about the product and its sourcing model; buyers still need project-specific documentation when assessing domestic-content eligibility.

Investment and employment in context

The disclosed $330 million investment equates to about $97 million per gigawatt of planned annual nameplate capacity when the full 3.4 GW target is used. This is a simple Agrilinkage calculation, not a measure of unit production cost or project profitability. It excludes the value of international production steps feeding the South Carolina line and should not be compared mechanically with fully integrated factories.

With nearly 500 jobs already filled against an expected total of about 700, the company reports that roughly 71% of the planned workforce is in place. The remaining employment and capacity depend on completing and ramping the second phase.

What to watch next

The most useful test will be whether First Solar completes phase two by mid-2027 and reports output or shipment data consistent with the 3.4 GW nameplate target. Customers and competitors will also watch whether the Gaffney site shortens delivery times, qualifies for domestic-content incentives and changes the balance between US finishing capacity and the company's international production fleet.

Primary source: First Solar's 28 October 2026 company release. The release supplies the investment, capacity, timetable and employment figures used above.

Methodology and disclosure: Agrilinkage compared the announced first and second phases, calculated the implied phase-one capacity and workforce share from disclosed figures, and clearly labels those calculations. The illustration is an original Agrilinkage editorial image generated for this article and is not a photograph of the Gaffney facility.