solar power plants in arizona
Founded in 1999 as First Solar Holdings, LLC) in Phoenix, Arizona, the company has taken the nation by storm, expanding production abroad and sale of the panels in the EU in a market where the government grants the promise of greater reward.
But that is changing, with two of the EU from the fans largest solar energy (Germany and Spain), reduction of subsidies because of the lingering recession. Thus, First Solar, whose shares received Q3 an impact on global projections of solar stocks and lower prices for silicon chips, is pulling in their wings and ramps up locally.
First Solar recently invested $ 100 million to improve the capacity of its Perrysburg, Ohio production plant of solar panels, adding a fourth line production capacity will total 2.8 million panels a year (up to 2 million euros) from March 2010. The installation also adds office space and research center, expected to create 140 new jobs.
First Solar also manufactures in Germany and Malaysia, and – as one of the solar energy companies in the nation's most respected – this in the Standard & Poor's in October. The S & P is a market analysis tool values such as the Dow industrials and Nasdaq composite leading U.S. companies.
On February 24, First Solar announced that it had been manufacturing costs solar panels for up to $ 1 per watt, compared to $ 3 in the last four years, a feat achieved to increase production of 50 times.
The company, which expanded the production of solar on the roof, then the utility-scale solar, has 1.3 gigawatts of solar electricity or in the ground or ready for release, which, despite the fact that total U.S. production (1.6 gigawatts) ranks fourth worldwide, behind Germany, Spain and Japan.
The expected utility-scale projects face obstacles from both the recession and Western environmentalists and politicians opposed to the farms plots on or near the Mojave Desert and other areas of critical habitat. These include installation of 550 megawatts in San Luis Obispo, California, 250 megawatts facility in Riverside, and the 200 megawatt project planned for San Bernardino.
Projects to be completed include a system of 10 megawatts in Wyandot County, Ohio;
7.65 megawatts in Blythe, California, 30 MW in Cimarron, New Mexico, and a current contract with the city to supply solar panels solar on the roof for residential.
First Solar has also recently entered into a cooperative venture with the Chinese government to build a 2 GW plant in an autonomous region of Inner Mongolia, which is expected to begin construction in June 2010 – a development whose electricity will probably be priced by a feed-in structure Tariff launch later this year or early next year, according to an executive of First Solar.
