First Solar & Sempra to Build 48MW PV Plant

First Solar, Inc. announced yesterday the execution of an agreement to construct a 48 megawatt ground-mounted solar panel based solar farm for Sempra Generation near Boulder City, Nevada; around 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) will design, engineer and construct the facility and expects to begin construction in 2009.

Once completed in 2010, the Copper Mountain Solar project will likely be the largest PV based solar farm in North America, with a solar power generation capacity of 48 MW - enough to supply more than 30,000 homes. Together with the existing 167,000 photovoltaic panels at Sempra's 10 MW facility completed late last year, the power plant will incorporate nearly 1 million solar panels.

The solar farm is largest renewable energy project so far for Sempra Generation, part of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE); moving the company closer to their goal of becoming the first U.S. firm to own 500 MW of solar power.

First Solar is the largest producer of solar panels in the USA, with manufacturing capacity growing more than 2,500 percent from 2004 to more than 500 megawatts in 2008. First Solar's 2009's annual production capacity is expect to exceed 1 gigawatt, the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant. The company also recently announced it reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in the fourth quarter to USD 98 cents per watt, breaking the USD $1 per watt price barrier.

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