First Solar dedicates 1.3M-square-foot facility in Wood County

A research and development center believed to be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere was commissioned Thursday by First Solar Inc.

The Jim Nolan Center for Solar Innovation encompasses 1.3 million square feet in Wood County’s Lake Township, near First Solar’s other Perrysburg-area properties.

That project and its upcoming perovskite development line, planned to be commissioned at First Solar’s Perrysburg campus later this year, together represent nearly another $500 million of investments in northwest Ohio. They are expected to create 300 new jobs, mostly at the Nolan Center, the company said.

The new research and development facility is dedicated to the late James “Jim” F. Nolan, a former member of First Solar’s Board of Directors and the architect of the company’s cadmium telluride semiconductor platform. A private dedication for the family is planned.

The Nolan facility includes a high-tech pilot manufacturing line allowing for the production of full-sized prototypes of thin film and tandem photovoltaic modules, commonly called solar panels. Until now, First Solar had been using a manufacturing line at its Perrysburg facility for its late-stage product development efforts.

Now it has more flexibility for times in which “mission-critical tools” have to go offline, the company said.

“By resolving these limitations and constraints, the new facility is expected to accelerate innovation cycles,” it said in a news release.

Advancements in thin-film technology are important in making solar energy more affordable and, thus, more attractive to the commercial markets that First Solar serves.

Mark Widmar, First Solar chief executive officer, said that while the United States leads the world in thin film photovoltaics, China is racing to close the innovation gap.

“We expect that this crucial investment in R&D infrastructure will help maintain our nation’s strategic advantage in thin film, accelerating the cycles of innovation needed to ensure that the next disruptive, transformative solar technology will be American-made,” he said.

First Solar invested nearly $2 billion in research and development. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., the company operates laboratories in Santa Clara, Calif., and the Perrysburg area, as well as Uppsala in Sweden.

The company was founded in 1999. It expects to commission new manufacturing plants in Alabama later this year and in Louisiana during the second half of 2025.

It expects to support an estimated 30,060 direct, indirect, and induced jobs nationally by 2026.

First Solar is the largest maker of solar panels in the United States.

It believes it has the most efficient solar-panel design in the industry, using cadmium telluride photovoltaic technology over conventional technologies such as crystalline silicon.

First Solar’s customers are utilities and commercial energy producers worldwide. The latest evolution of the technology, known as Series 7, is made in Perrysburg with 100 percent U.S. content, including the sheet glass from Pilkington North America in Toledo.

The company, which employs about 2,600 people locally, claims that 90 percent of the panels it makes are recyclable. By 2026, it expects local, direct employment to rise to 4,100 people.