Thin-film solar firm, First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq:FSLR) announced that its board of directors has approved the construction of an additional manufacturing plant in Malaysia with an annual production capacity of 120 megawatts (MW) representing an investment of about $150 million.
The new plant is scheduled to start production in the first half of 2009 and will be built adjacent to two previously announced plants currently under construction in Malaysia.
First Solar operates manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Germany with total annual production capacity of 210MW and is currently constructing two additional manufacturing plants in Malaysia with total annual nameplate production capacity of 240MW. This expansion will bring the Company’s total annual nameplate production capacity to 570MW upon completion of all announced projects by the end of 2009.
The production from the newly announced plant expansion will be used to meet additional demand from First Solar’s existing customers, including Blitzstrom GmbH, Conergy AG, Gehrlicher Umweltschonende Energiesysteme GmbH, Phoenix Solar AG, and Reinecke + Pohl Sun Energy AG, and to meet demand under a new long term contract with ASSYCE Fotovoltaica, a Spanish renewable energy project developer and system integrator focused on large scale, grid connected solar power plants.
First Solar recently signed contracts and contract extensions with these customers expanding sales volumes by a total of 625MW, allowing for additional sales of approximately $1.1 billion at an assumed exchange rate of $1.30/EUR 1.00, over the period of 2007 to 2012. These customers are primarily targeting development of solar projects with First Solar modules in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal.
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