As published in Manufacturing & Construction News - January 1, 2020
First Solar’s new PV module facility located in Lake Township
First Solar, Inc. recently started production at its new 1.1 million square foot photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing facility in Lake Township, its second factory in the United States. First Solar continues to operate its flagship factory in Perrysburg, effectively scaling its total annualized production capacity in the US to 1.9 gigawatts (GW).
According to Justin Rossi, project executive at Rudolph Libbe Inc., site selection for the project began in January 2018 and design was complete in late April. Construction began on May 26, 2018, with building construction completed 12 months later.
The lead architect for the project was Ghafari Associates, LLC, based in Dearborn, Michigan, which provided programming, planning, architecture, interior design, and structural engineering services for the new facility. JDRM Engineering, Inc., based in Sylvania, was the lead engineer. Rudolph Libbe Inc., of the Rudolph Libbe Group, served as design/build contractor and self-performed sitework, site concrete, site utilities, building foundations, slabs, and masonry. GEM Inc., another Rudolph Libbe Group company, performed building and office plumbing, office HVAC, building electrical, central utility building electrical, process mechanical, and substation electrical work.
Dunbar Mechanical, VM Systems, Fabcon, Nordmann Roofing, Lakeside Interiors, Interstate Glass, A.A. Boos, Geiger & Peters, OCP Contractors, EDGE Landscaping, Program Solutions Group, and Henry Gurtzweiler were also part of the construction team.
“Working in close collaboration with project stakeholders, our team provided architecture, interior design, and structural engineering services for the one million square foot manufacturing plant. Designed to nearly double First Solar’s current production volumes, the facility will push out 1.2 gigawatts of cadmium-telluride photovoltaic solar panels each year,” said Ghafari officials. “Our team designed a high-performing manufacturing facility that will be capable of serving the growing demand for solar panel technology while driving local job creation.”
Ghafari also noted that the facility features both production and administration spaces, including training rooms, process support rooms, private offices and phone booths, large and small conference rooms, a medical clinic, a fitness center, and locker rooms. Additionally, the plant offers a number of quick, convenient food options to enjoy in the cafeteria and outdoor patio.
First Solar’s new 1.1 million square foot facility is its second factory in the US
Rossi noted that collaboration between First Solar’s internal design team, Ghafari, JDRM, and Rudolph Libbe allowed all facets of the project to come together and drive completion.
“The project began with site selection in January 2018. First Solar and the Rudolph Libbe Properties SiteLine team met continually to discuss options, research, challenges, and recommendations, and five possible sites were evaluated. In March 2018, the 183-acre site in Lake Township, composed of seven parcels of land, was selected and the purchase was completed in April 2018,” said Rossi. “The project is a testament to how communication and collaboration between the owner, architect, engineer and the construction team will result in a well-organized project. We were able to break ground on the First Solar project as planned, only 43 days after it was publicly announced.”
First Solar’s Lake Township and Perrysburg facilities
produce its Series 6 module technology
First Solar new |
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“We are excited to be part of such a monumental project,” George Barbu, Ghafari vice president previously said in a statement. “The project had an aggressive schedule – we started the design for the facility in March and broke ground for construction in June. Our team has worked hand-in-hand with project stakeholders to help them achieve their goals for this project.”
The project, according to Rossi, included coordinating large amounts of materials and thousands of deliveries. To meet the fast-track schedule, the team enclosed the building in sections – digging foundations, installing utilities, erecting precast steel, and panels simultaneously on site – through a severe winter and wet spring. At the peak of construction, about 400 workers were on site.
“We maintained the schedule through a tough winter and wet spring. Enclosing the building in sections allowed us to fast-track construction, keep multiple trades working simultaneously, maintain heat, and continue pouring concrete. Our team was digging foundations, installing utilities, erecting precast steel, and panels simultaneously,” explained Rossi. “We sought processes to speed up construction, such as load-bearing precast walls to reduce the amount of perimeter steel and an early suppression, fast response (ESFR) sprinkler system to eliminate the requirement for heat and smoke vents and draft curtains. Because we had all retention ponds in place, the site dried out fairly quickly during one of the wettest springs on record.”
To achieve precise tolerances on First Solar’s concrete floor work, Rudolph Libbe used a state-of-the-art Ligchine ScreedSaver BOSS 240 concrete screed and concrete pours often started by 4 a.m. According to Rossi, the laser screed reduced the time needed to place the floors.
The project also included large amounts of piping, duct, cable tray, light fixtures, and sprinkler heads, as well as large equipment. To ensure that installation went smoothly, Rudolph Libbe used building information modeling (BIM) to coordinate the installation of large amounts of equipment and constructed the building on a computer model long before ground was broken, as well as a drone to document construction progress for the owner and provide a bird’s eye view for safety reviews.
“Using building information modeling, Rudolph Libbe Group’s virtual design and construction (VDC) team broke the project into sequences that followed the overall master construction schedule and identified and resolved equipment conflicts before construction began,” said Rossi. “Using a drone, Rudolph Libbe’s VDC team documented construction progress for First Solar and provided a bird’s eye view for safety reviews. The drone also provided data for topographical surveys in much less time and at a lower cost than traditional surveys performed on the ground. Two hours of flight generated the data, which traditional surveys required four days to obtain. Data was quickly obtained to generate ‘what if’ scenarios and helped calculate the quantities of earth that needed to be moved.”
Rudolph Libbe’s construction site
during the First Solar project
According to Rossi, safety was paramount on the project.
“First Solar and Rudolph Libbe developed a site-specific safety program, which provided a full-time on-site safety professional to serve as a consultant and technical resource for the project team,” said Rossi. “The result was a strong safety performance, with minimal incidents and zero lost-time for the entire 418,051 man-hours worked to complete the project.”
First Solar’s expanded manufacturing footprint in the United States, which represents over $1 billion in cumulative investment and directly created approximately 500 new jobs, makes it the largest solar manufacturer in America and the western hemisphere, noted the company. The investment includes a new $265 million TCO (transparent conductive oxide) coated glass factory being built by the NSG Group in Troy Township, Ohio, its first new float glass line in the country since 1980.
“Eighteen months ago, we announced that we would expand our manufacturing footprint in the United States in response to demand. We have delivered,” said Mark Widmar, chief executive officer, First Solar. “The fact that we were able to transform a greenfield site into a high tech manufacturing facility in that time, and on time, speaks volumes about not just the scalability of our technology, and our ability to deliver on our commitments, but also the relentless energy of our people, our towering strength.”
Both the Lake Township and Perrysburg facilities produce First Solar’s Series 6 module technology, which is designed and developed at the company’s research and development centers in California and Ohio. The module, according to the company, is produced in just 3.5 hours using sophisticated, fully-integrated manufacturing processes. Each large-format Series 6 module leverages First Solar’s proprietary thin film technology, retaining the proven performance and reliability advantages of earlier generation modules. With a carbon footprint that is up to six times lower than crystalline silicon PV panels that are manufactured using conventional, energy-intensive production methods, Series 6 delivers a superior environmental profile and cleaner solar electricity, according to the company.
“Our Lake Township facility is a marvel of modern manufacturing, a factory of the future, operational today. Its levels of automation, digitalization, machine learning, and artificial intelligence demonstrate that the ambitions of Industry 4.0 are not out of reach for the PV manufacturing industry,” said Tymen de Jong, chief operating officer, First Solar. “We’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved, and we are proud to have achieved it in northwestern Ohio, the technological home of American solar.”
First Solar is also celebrating two decades since its founding in 1999, and 25 GW of PV modules shipped, making it the only American solar module manufacturing company to achieve this milestone. First Solar also operates manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and Malaysia with a current global annualized manufacturing capacity of 6.7 GW.