Thread: FIRST SOLAR plans maufacturing plant in AZ. 600 JOBS

First Solar plans major manufacturing plant in SE Mesa

Gary Nelson -
Mar. 17, 2011 10:58 AM
The Arizona Republic

First Solar Inc. of Tempe announced Thursday morning it will build a large solar-panel manufacturing plant on the site of the former General Motors Desert Proving Ground in southeast Mesa.

The $300 million facility is expected to offer about 600 jobs when it opens next year. Mesa City Manager Chris Brady told The Republic that depending on future demand, the facility could eventually employ as many as 4,800 people.

Arizona had been in competition with Texas and New Mexico for the plant, Brady said.

"It makes the statement that we are going to lead the way into the new industries for the future," Brady said.

The factory will have four manufacturing lines making photovoltaic modules capable of generating more than 250 megawatts of electricity per year.

Construction is to begin in the second quarter of this year, creating 400 to 500 construction jobs. The factory is expected to ship its first modules by the third quarter of 2012.

The 135-acre site will be the first development project on the former GM site, which closed in 2009. DMB Associates of Scottsdale owns the northern 5 square miles of the old proving ground and envisions a decades-long transformation of the property into a new urban center closely tied to the adjacent Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

First Solar announced in October that it would build new plants in Vietnam and the United States, with the U.S. site undetermined at that time.

Further details will be provided on azcentral.com and in Friday's Arizona Republic and Mesa Republic.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa ... s0317.html

Doesn't First Solar care that all those jobs will probably go to Americans and legal residents
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American jobs for American workers

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