The US’s largest photo voltaic panel maker, First Photo voltaic (Nasdaq: FSLR), says it’s constructing the biggest skinny movie R&D middle within the Western Hemisphere.
First Photo voltaic will web site its new R&D middle, the Jim Nolan Middle for Photo voltaic Innovation, in Lake Township, Ohio. The 1.3 million-square-foot facility will embody a pilot manufacturing line for producing full-sized prototypes of skinny movie and tandem PV modules. The corporate has not but revealed when it expects to carry the power on-line.
“Skinny movies are the following technological battleground for the photo voltaic trade as a result of they’re key to commercializing tandem gadgets, that are anticipated to be the following disruption in photovoltaics,” stated First Photo voltaic CEO Mark Widmar.
The corporate has been utilizing a producing line at its Perrysburg, Ohio, manufacturing facility for late-stage product improvement, but it surely stated its Perrysburg manufacturing line limits improvement flexibility, and the brand new R&D middle will speed up innovation cycles.
The Jim Nolan Middle is a part of a ~$500 million funding by First Photo voltaic in R&D infrastructure. It additionally expects to fee a perovskite improvement line at its Perrysburg, Ohio, campus within the second half of 2024. The corporate, which says it has invested virtually $2 billion in R&D, operates laboratories in Perrysburg, Santa Clara, California, and Uppsala, Sweden.
Its California Know-how Middle (CTC) in Santa Clara just lately achieved a 23.1% environment friendly CdTe cell – a brand new world document licensed by the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL).
First Photo voltaic exited 2023 with 16.6 gigawatts (GW) of annual international nameplate manufacturing capability and is predicted to realize over 25 GW of capability by 2026. It expects to fee new factories in Alabama within the second half of 2024 and Louisiana within the second half of 2025. That may carry its whole US nameplate capability to 14 GW by 2026.
The corporate’s new R&D infrastructure investments are projected to create round 300 jobs by 2025, most of which can be on the Jim Nolan Middle.
Learn extra: The US’s largest photo voltaic panel maker is taking up a Peloton manufacturing facility
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