First Solar, Inc. is an American solar technology and manufacturing company incorporated in Delaware, listed on Nasdaq under the ticker FSLR, and headquartered at 4300 E Camelback Road in Phoenix, Arizona, with its registered address at 350 West Washington Street. Mark Widmar is chief executive. The company produces cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film photovoltaic modules rather than crystalline silicon panels, and it describes itself as the only US-headquartered company among the world's largest solar manufacturers. Its products are sold to utility-scale and distributed generation developers rather than installed by First Solar itself.
From Solar Cells Inc. to a US manufacturer
The business began as Solar Cells, Inc., founded in 1990 by the inventor Harold McMaster, and was bought in 1999 by True North Partners, an investment group led by Michael Ahearn, which rebranded it as First Solar. Its module technology was developed at research and development laboratories in California and Ohio, and the company has kept manufacturing centred in the United States while adding plants in Asia. The Series 6 and Series 7 module families form the current product line, and the group is rolling out a Copper Replacement programme intended to raise module wattage within the same production platform.
Factories and capacity
First Solar says it has the largest solar manufacturing footprint in the Western Hemisphere, with five operational factories in Ohio, Alabama and Louisiana, and it expects global annual manufacturing capacity of about 25 GW during 2026. Modules are made in a single continuous process that takes sheets of glass to finished panels in around four hours. The Q2 2026 results noted capital spending on a finishing facility in South Carolina.
- United States — Perrysburg, Ohio; Walbridge, Ohio (two plants); Trinity, Alabama; New Iberia, Louisiana.
- Malaysia — Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kedah.
- Vietnam — Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City.
- India — Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.
- Germany — module recycling facility at Frankfurt (Oder).
Commercial offices are also maintained in Singapore, New Delhi and Mexico City.
Technology and resource use
The CdTe semiconductor layer is derived from byproducts of copper and zinc mining, and First Solar states that its modules need only 1% to 2% of the semiconductor material consumed by conventional crystalline silicon modules to produce comparable power. The company claims up to four times lower lifecycle carbon footprint and water footprint than silicon panels, and it operates a module collection and recycling programme for end-of-life panels. Because the process is fully integrated and does not rely on Chinese crystalline silicon supply chains, First Solar markets its modules partly on supply security and traceability as well as on performance.
Second quarter 2026 results
For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 First Solar reported net sales of $1.06 billion, 4% below the same quarter of 2025, a decline caused mainly by lower revenue from customer contract terminations that was partly offset by higher third-party module volumes. Net income was $423 million, or $3.92 per diluted share, against $342 million and $3.18 a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA rose to $644 million from $560 million. The net cash balance fell to $1.7 billion from $2.4 billion at the end of December 2025 because of seasonal working capital and capital expenditure. Contracted sales backlog stood at 45.1 GW at the end of June 2026 and extends through 2030, and the company said it had passed 100 GW of cumulative module sales worldwide. Guidance for 2026 was reaffirmed, with third-quarter module sales of 3.9-4.5 GW, of which 3.2-3.7 GW is expected from US manufacturing, and third-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $625-775 million.
Policy, patents and sustainability reporting
First Solar's outlook assumes the current US policy environment continues, including the Inflation Reduction Act as amended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 and its Section 45X production tax credits, with guidance also allowing for $90-100 million of production start-up expense in 2026. The company welcomed the Section 232 action on polysilicon and derivatives in August 2026 and said in September 2026 that it would recalibrate its TOPCon patent enforcement strategy following that action. In February 2026 it entered a patent licensing agreement with Oxford PV covering the US market. On sustainability, First Solar publishes an annual corporate responsibility report, is a member of the Responsible Business Alliance and reached platinum status in an RBA validated assessment of its Ohio plants in 2022. It has committed to powering all global manufacturing operations with renewable energy by 2028 and to net zero emissions by 2050, and a February 2026 study it commissioned projected that its US operations would support nearly 40,000 American jobs and contribute $7.8 billion a year to US gross domestic product by 2027.