US firm says it will build China's largest solar energy plant

First Solar Inc said it plans to build the world's largest solar plant in China in the first major foray by a US company into the country's fast-growing alternative energy sector.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese government, First Solar will build a two-gigawatt power plant, enough to power about 3 million Chinese households, at Ordos in Inner Mongolia.

First Solar also will consider building a manufacturing plant in China.

The announcement came as the solar industry struggles to emerge from a year-long slump that saw financing for new projects dry up and reduced subsidies in Spain create a glut of unsold cells and panels.

The project is part of China's program to generate 10 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2010 to meet energy needs at a time when China has become the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide.

First Solar will begin constructing a 30-megawatt demonstration project in June 2010 in Ordos.

The second and third phases call for 100-mW and 870-mW projects that will be completed in 2014. A final 1,000-mW installation will be finished in 2019.

Solar projects have so far been built on a smaller scale, and the First Solar project will be a test of whether the technology behind the plant - which will be 30 times the size of the largest current plant - can be scaled up.

"In most people's heads, (solar) is a nice little niche thing," First Solar Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Ahearn said.

"Having a demonstration of something that's the size of a nuclear plant will begin to change that image," Ahearn said.

The agreement also would depend on Beijing's approval of a feed-in tariff mandating that utilities pay a premium for solar power.

Reuters

(China Daily 09/14/2009 page3)