The US’s largest solar panel maker is taking over a Peloton factory

First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) has acquired a former Peloton factory in Ohio and has plans to turn it into a distribution center.

The US’s largest solar panel maker says it will repurpose Peloton Output Park’s 1.2 million-square-foot facility in Troy Township, Ohio, into a new distribution center for its three factories in the state. The three facilities had a combined annual nameplate capacity of around 6 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2023.

Peloton announced it was going to build Peloton Output Park in 2021. Construction of the facility was partially completed before the connected fitness company made the decision to close down the project in early 2022, and it’s been actively looking for a buyer ever since.

First Solar is preparing to expand its Ohio capacity by almost 1 GW in 2024, so it acquired Peloton Output Park as a logistics and distribution hub to handle its manufacturing growth.

Mike Koralewski, chief supply chain officer of First Solar, said, “We expect that this approach will allow us to streamline logistics operations while reducing operating costs and contributing to our cost reduction roadmap.”

First Solar is investing over $2 billion in new factories in Alabama and Louisiana. The company expects to have 14 GW of fully vertically integrated US solar manufacturing capacity by 2026. It’s also investing up to $370 million in a dedicated R&D innovation center in Perrysburg, Ohio, which is expected to be completed in 2024.

Read more: The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar

Photo: First Solar

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