First Solar will invest $300m to build a manufacturing unit in Arizona, US.

The unit will house four manufacturing lines with a capacity to produce more than 250MW of advanced thin-film photovoltaic modules per year.

The new factory, along with another facility in Ohio, will increase First Solar’s US production capacity to more than 500MW per year.

Work on the construction of the plant will begin in the second quarter of this year and is expected to completed in a year’s time.

The facility will cover a 3MW rooftop solar installation and an extensive ground-mounted photovoltaic testing facility.

Module shipments are due to begin in the third quarter of 2012.