First Solar Inc. says its manufacturing facility in India has been awarded monetary incentives beneath the Indian authorities’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program. First Solar was one in all solely three producers chosen to obtain the complete vary of incentives, that are reserved for totally vertically built-in manufacturing.
The incentives are topic to the power assembly product effectivity and home worth creation thresholds, which might be evaluated on a quarterly foundation starting within the second quarter of 2026 by 2031.
The PLI program is meant to advertise the manufacturing of excessive effectivity solar modules in India and to cut back India’s dependency on overseas imports of solar modules. Under this system, producers are chosen by a aggressive bid course of and obtain sure money incentives over a five-year interval following the commissioning of their manufacturing services.
Among different issues, such incentives are based mostly on the effectivity and temperature coefficient of the modules produced, the proportion of uncooked supplies sourced from the home market, the extent to which the producer’s operations are totally built-in inside India, and the amount of modules offered from such manufacturing operations.
First Solar’s new facility, anticipated to be commissioned within the second half of this yr, is positioned within the state of Tamil Nadu and can have an annual nameplate capability of three.4 GW DC. Designed utilizing the superior manufacturing template established by First Solar’s latest manufacturing unit in Ohio, the power will produce the corporate’s Series 7 modules.
First Solar produces its skinny movie PV modules utilizing a totally built-in, steady course of beneath one roof and doesn’t depend on Chinese c-Si provide chains. The firm’s eco-efficient module expertise, which makes use of its proprietary Cadmium Telluride semiconductor, has low carbon and water footprints.
First Solar can also be increasing its U.S. manufacturing footprint, which at present stands at over 5 GW of annual nameplate capability with three working factories in Ohio, to over 10 GW by 2025 when it completes its new $1.1 billion manufacturing unit in Alabama and a $185 million enlargement of its current capability in Ohio. The firm is anticipated to have over 20 GW of annual world nameplate manufacturing capability by 2025.
Photo by Priamo Mendez on Unsplash
