Why it matters
The energy context.
Manufacturing the equipment of the energy transition — solar modules, transformers, switchgear, electrolyzers, advanced batteries — has become a domestic industrial priority in its own right. The Inflation Reduction Act's §45X advanced-manufacturing production credits make the unit economics workable at US labor costs. Transformer shortages are now a meaningful constraint on the broader power-grid expansion.
Project record
At a glance
- Company
- First Solar
- Industry
- Energy
- Location
- Lawrence County, Alabama
- Investment
- $1.10B
- Permanent jobs announced
- 700
- Status
- Operational
- Announced
- Oct 20, 2022
- Operations began
- Jan 1, 2025
- Added to tracker
- Apr 15, 2025
Sources
Official references
- Primary source https://governor.alabama.gov/newsroom/2022/11/governor-ivey-announces-first-solar-to-open-1-1-billion-alabama-facility-creating-over-700-clean-energy-manufacturing-jobs-in-lawrence-county/
Related
Other projects to know
In Alabama
Back to the tracker/projects/first-solar-lawrence-county