First Solar agrees Chinese plant

Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Chinese government to build a giant 2GW solar power plant in Ordos City in Inner Mongolia, China.

The Ordos solar project will be built over many years in several phases. Phase one calls for a 30MW demonstration project to be built. Construction will begin by 1 June, 2010 and the plant will be completed as soon as is practical thereafter.

Phases two, three and four will be 100, 870, and 1,000MW installations. Plans call for phases two and three to be completed in 2014 and phase four by 2019.

The project will operate under a so-called feed-in tariff that will guarantee the pricing of electricity produced by the power plant over a long-term period.

The MOU between China and the US solar module maker says that during the implementation of the initial phases of the project, First Solar will review the possibility of building a factory in China to manufacture its photovoltaic solar modules.