First Solar adds another factory as backlog reaches 78 GW

With a few new orders rolling in (5 GW from Energix, 2.4 GW from Intersect Power, 1 GW from Capital Power in just the past month), First Solar’s total module order backlog has reached 78 GW. This time last year, the order backlog was ‘only’ 44 GW, with the accumulation in full swing once the Department of Commerce menaced South-East Asian imports in April 2022 – before that the company had sat a 10 GW backlog since mid-2018. This requires yet further manufacturing expansion, with a $1.1 billion, 3.5 GW facility announced this week. The location is undecided, but this will be First Solar’s fifth factory in the US, and the second 3.5 GW expansion announced for the US in…