NEW IBERIA, LA. — First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), an Arizona-based provider of solar panels, has broken ground on a $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in New Iberia, located just southeast of Lafayette in the south-central part of Louisiana. The facility will be located on the grounds of Acadiana Regional Airport and will ultimately encompass more than 2 million square feet. The project, which local community leaders and members of the development team believe is the biggest in the history of the parish, is expected to generate about 700 new permanent manufacturing jobs within the local economy. First Solar anticipates that the plant will be fully operational and able to begin shipping products by the first half of 2026. When that scenario materializes, the company’s total manufacturing capacity will increase from 3.5 gigawatts to approximately 14 gigawatts in the United States and 25 gigawatts globally. At full capacity, the plant will be capable of churning out more than a dozen panels per minute. To secure the project in Iberia Parish, the State of Louisiana offered First Solar an incentives package that includes the workforce solutions of LED FastStart, a Louisiana Economic Development program for training and onboarding workers. Additional incentives include …
