The US-based First Solar Inc will build a new manufacturing plant in Vietnam alongside with another plant in the US to meet strong demand for its thin-film photovoltaic modules, said the company’s website.
Its two new four-line manufacturing plants that will boost the company's annual manufacturing capacity by nearly 500 MW are expected to be completed in 2012.
Each new plant will create approximately 600 jobs and will be designed to accommodate additional production capacity.
Negotiations and site assessments are ongoing in both countries, but the capital investments for the two plants have yet been unveiled.
The new plants will extend First Solar's previously announced capacity additions, including eight lines in Malaysia, four lines in Germany, and two lines in France.
Earlier this year the company also completed an expansion of its Perrysburg, Ohio, manufacturing plant, which serves as First Solar's primary hub for engineering, research and development.
The two new plants, combined with these previously announced expansions, will nearly double production capacity from 1.4 gigawatts (1,400 megawatts) in 2010 to more than 2.7 GW in 2012.
Unlike other major solar companies, First Solar, the largest in the sector with market value of $11.7 billion, produces modules that use cadmium telluride to produce electricity from sunlight rather than polysilicon.
Booming demand for clean electricity systems has sent sales for many of the leading solar companies worldwide soaring this year, with First Solar, Suntech Power Holdings and Yingli Green Energy Holding Co reporting they had sold out of products, Reuters reported.
Earlier this month, China’s Suntech opened its first in the US as part of its plan to raise output capacity this year to 1.8 gigawatts.
One gigawatt is about the size of a nuclear power reactor.
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