ENERGY First Solar breaks ground on $400 million plant in Wood County

[jpak]

http://www.toledoblade.com/Energy/2018/06/08/First-Solar-breaks-ground-on-400-million-plant-in-Wood-County.html

An empty expanse of dirt off State Rt. 795 in Wood County will soon be home to part of the largest solar factory, by capacity, in the Western Hemisphere.

Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar broke ground Friday morning on a $400-million, 1-million-square-foot plant in Lake Township, which will produce its new Series 6 thin-film solar panels. The plant, which is set to reach full capacity in late 2019, will bring 500 jobs to the region, compensating for the 350 jobs First Solar cut to upgrade its Perrysburg Township plant, located less than two miles away, from Series 4 to Series 6 panel production last year.

“We made a decision about 18 months ago to transition to a new product, which was a tough decision for us to make,” said First Solar CEO Mark Widmar. “But we did it for the reason of taking the best possible product and the best possible technology and getting them into the marketplace to enable us to grow from a position of strength.”

When the new plant is complete, the two factories will produce enough panels to generate a combined 1.8 gigawatts of power annually, three times the Perrysburg site’s current output.

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[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. Hopefully

those 350 jobs get to come back and not start all over w seniority or whatever. Something tells me, no.