First Solar Inc. has broken ground on its four-line photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in the Dong Nam Industrial Park near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh attended a recent ceremony at the site to mark the occasion.
The $300 million manufacturing plant is scheduled to begin commercial production in the second half of 2012 and employ approximately 600 associates, according to First Solar. Up to 2,000 people will be involved in the construction.
The plant will produce more than 250 MW of First Solar's thin-film solar modules per year on four manufacturing lines, with the flexibility for future expansion. The factory also will include a recycling plant with a process that currently recovers up to 90% of a module's semiconductor materials and glass, by weight, for use in new solar modules and glass products.
First Solar adds that it plans to install 3 MW of its modules on the factory's roof.
SOURCE: First Solar
