First Solar Plans to Build New Manufacturing Plant in Ohio

The construction is expected to begin in mid-2018 and the expansion plan calls for a 1 million square foot facility located in Lake Township, Ohio which is near First Solar’s Perrysburg site. The full production mode will start in late 2019 with an expected annualized capacity of 1.2GW.

First Solar, Inc. announced its plans to build a new solar module manufacturing unit near its existing Ohio flagship plant in Perrysburg. With the start of the new factory 500 jobs in northwestern Ohio will be created. The produced material from the factory will be advanced technology Series thin film photovoltaic (PV) module.

The construction is expected to begin in mid-2018 and the expansion plan calls for a 1 million square foot facility located in Lake Township, Ohio which is near First Solar’s Perrysburg site. The full production mode will start in late 2019 with an expected annualized capacity of 1.2GW.

First Solar’s Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing Mike Koralewski said, “Strong demand in the U.S. for advanced solar technology, along with recent changes in U.S. corporate tax policies, have encouraged our decision to grow First Solar’s U.S. production operations.”

“State and local officials and JobsOhio have also worked with us to create a business-friendly environment that supported our objectives. These factors, combined with our own economies of scale in high tech manufacturing, make expanding U.S. operations an attractive, win-win opportunity, he further added.

Koralewski said the capital investment for the expansion will be approximately $400 million, with a workforce of approximately 500 associates and an annual payroll of approximately $30 million. He gave the indications that First Solar has options for potential further manufacturing expansion in the future, depending on sustained U.S. demand for advanced solar technology.

The company has invested $175 million into retooling the original Perrysburg plant for production of its new Series 6 product in 2017.  This April, the facility re-started an idled Series 4 production line to meet continued demand for that product.

The flagship Perrysburg plant works with more than 250 U.S. suppliers and is the largest solar manufacturing facility in US. It supports more than 4,000 jobs across the Ohio region.

Source: ABC