A huge solar factory in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, is doing something that sounds deceptively simple: raw sheets of glass enter one end and finished solar panels emerge from the other. The First Solar plant covers roughly 2.4 million square feet and cost about $1.1 billion. It began making panels in July 2025, and at full production, the facility is designed to turn out about 12 panels every minute.
But the factory's real significance goes beyond its size. Its production model is closely tied to the push to expand American solar manufacturing while reducing reliance on imported components, as per a report by AutoNotion.
