American thin-film solar module maker First Solar, Inc has filled up its order book with an additional 8.1 GW DC contracts from British solar company Lightsource bp, American renewable energy developer Silicon Ranch Corporation, both its existing customers, and Shell Group's Savion, LLC.
Lightsource bp will procure 4.0 GW DC Series 6 and 7 panels capacity from First Solar between 2026 and 2028 to deploy for its US based projects. With this, the British company has expanded its total contracted capacity with First Solar to exceed 8.0 GW, counting the 4.3 GW DC order it placed in 2021 (see First Solar Bags Its Largest Module Order Ever).
Another existing procurer of First Solar modules, Silicon Ranch Corporation says it will purchase an additional 1.5 GW Series 6 Plus panels from the American manufacturer from its Ohio production base. It plans to use the newer lot of panels for its US projects in 2026 and 2027.
Previously, Silicon Ranch signed master supply agreements with First Solar for 4.0 GW and 700 MW module capacity in 2022 to be used for its projects through 2025 (see North America PV News Snippets).
Shell Group's US utility scale solar and storage subsidiary Savion will buy 2.6 GW DC Series 7 modules from First Solar in a contract booked before First Solar's Q3/2022 financial results were released in October 2022. Module supply will be completed between 2025 and 2027.
"The passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been a critical component in Savion's commitment to supporting the expansion of the manufactured renewables supply chain in the United States. The IRA strongly contributed to the agreement between Savion and First Solar, the only US-headquartered company among the world's largest solar manufacturers," stated Savion.
While these contracts hedge the offtakers from volatile prices in the global market with supply chain and logistical challenges, giving them certainty of locally produced modules with low carbon footprint in the IRA era, these also reflect the growing pipeline of the offtakers far into the future in the US.
For First Solar, its growing order book of long-term contracts is giving a fillip to its US manufacturing projects. Lightsource bp's Series 7 module order will be delivered by the manufacturer's 3rd US fab in Ohio planned to come online in H1/2023 and its 4th in Alabama that's currently under construction. The company targets to have an annual US nameplate manufacturing capacity of 10.6 GW DC by 2026.
At the end of 2022, its nameplate manufacturing capacity was 9.8 GW DC. During the company's call with analysts to discuss its Q4/2022 financials, First Solar said it was sold out through 2025 and has been negotiating to secure long-term contracts for 'remainder of the decade' (see First Solar's Backlog Of Future Deliveries Now 67.7 GW).
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