First Solar hopes to unveil its $1.1 billion New Iberia plant today
When Georges Antoun came to Louisiana from Lebanon in the early 1980s, he needed money.
The country was entering an oil crisis, and cities along the Gulf Coast — especially places like Lafayette that depended on oil and gas jobs — felt the hit first.
As families moved to larger cities like Houston in search of work, Antoun began offering a service: For a fee, he’d drive their moving trucks back to Louisiana.
It’s no secret that Louisiana has long lost talent to its western neighbor and has sought ways to entice them back.
The opening of First Solar’s $1.1 billion solar panel manufacturing facility near New Iberia has allowed Antoun, now the company’s chief commercial officer, to have conversations with families who have chosen to return to Louisiana to work at the facility, which will celebrate its grand opening on Friday after the project was announced just over two years ago.
The 2.4 million-square-foot mega complex is one of the largest investments in the Acadiana region and is expected to provide over 800 jobs by the end of 2025.
It is now the company’s fifth U.S. manufacturing facility and is expected to help fuel America’s growing energy needs all while using a 100% American supply line. The opening comes on the heels of First Solar’s recent announcement that it would build a $330 million plant in the town of Gaffney, South Carolina.
The Louisiana investment is already paying dividends, with Acadiana manufacturers like Noble Plastics announcing in September that it would undergo an $8.5 million expansion to supply the New Iberia location. Ohio-based Ice Industries recently celebrated the grand opening of its $6 million manufacturing facility in Jefferson Davis Parish, which will produce steel backrails for First Solar’s photovoltaic panels.
“You feel the impact immediately, “Antoun said. “I’m very proud, given that I’m a Louisiana boy. “
The idea to bring the facility to south Louisiana wasn’t without its hurdles, he added. The state, known for its damaging hurricanes and flooding, at first made the board uneasy, but it had one thing going for it — a highly skilled, easily transferable workforce.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and South Louisiana Community College were also eager to help win over the company, providing a curriculum and simulated training for new hires, and tapping the university for a large portion of its workforce.
“Pushback is normal,” he said. “Louisiana is a tough place to build. South Louisiana, we get a few hurricanes here and there. Flooding, tax-wise, insurance-wise. This took a bit of doing and bringing it here. But the company was committed to drive it in here.”
”(UL-Lafayette) produces a tremendous amount of engineers and technical degrees, and a lot of folks don’t want to leave the area. They want to stay here.”
First Solar is poised to deliver a financial boon to Iberia Parish, said Reuven Proenca, director of global brand, corporate, and marketing communications at First Solar. The company is expected to contribute the equivalent of $150 million to the parish’s GDP in the first year of operation.
The company will also provide high-paying jobs averaging $80,000 to $90,000, totaling $75 million in annual labor income, according to data collected by the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Center at UL.
Antoun also believes the company will likely continue its rapid growth as the largest solar panel manufacturer in the western hemisphere. Just seven years ago, the company could produce around 2.5 gigawatts of solar panels a year, compared to the 17.7 GW it expects to create once the South Carolina facility is operational.
The New Iberia location can produce up to 3.5 GW worth of solar panels annually.
“You’re going to see us throttle down, throttle up. We’re trying to react to the market,” Antoun said. “We’ve been on a tremendous growth over the past 10 years. Now we’re at a point where we need to understand what our friends in Washington will do and what certainties they will put.”
President Donald Trump has made his distaste for renewable energy well known over the years, going as far as sunsetting Biden-era solar tax credits earlier than they were set to expire. The decision killed dozens of early-stage utility-scale solar projects planned for Louisiana.
But Trump’s marquee One Big Beautiful Bill has produced “tailwinds” for the 100% American-made company, Proenca said, adding that First Solar is one of the only solar companies to recieve investment from the White House.
“Can we survive without incentives? The answer is yes,” Antoun said.
In an energy-hungry America, Antoun said, solar remains the cheapest and most quickly deployable form of energy.
“Everybody is looking for power as a country, as the US,” he said. “We have no spare power. Is it solar? Is it natural gas? Is it coal? Is it nuke? Look, it’s all of the above.”