PERRYSBURG – More than 500 jobs will be supported at First Solar’s manufacturing plant in Perrysburg
Township thanks to nearly $500 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

The announcement was made at the plant Friday by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ex-Im Chairman
Fred Hochberg.
"We know how to make things in Ohio," said Brown, noting that the state ranks just third in
manufacturing behind California and Texas.
"We know how to make big things," he went on, explaining that automobiles and – more relevant
to the solar power industry – glass are major drivers in the Toledo area.
To that end, manufacturing plays a vital part in job creation in the state, he said.
Ex-Im Bank is providing $455.7 million in two transactions to the company, with the monies to be focused
at the Perrysburg facility on its exports to Canada. The move will support 550 jobs per year at the
plant.
The exported photovoltaic panels are for a 50-megawatt solar project in the Canadian townships of
Amberstburg, Belmont, and Walpole, and a 40-megawatt project in St. Chair.
Brown noted that currently 70 percent of clean energy systems are manufactured abroad, largely by Germany
and China.
Brown and Hochberg toured the manufacturing floor of the 900,000 square-foot facility following a press
conference and Brown, at the close of the tour, placed a "Made in USA, Exporting to Canada"
label on a crate of photovoltaic panels to be shipped out.
Hochberg noted that American companies will be most distinctive when they have their innovation,
engineering, and manufacturing facilities all adjacent to one another.
Of his bank’s financial guarantees to First Solar, he said "It’s not just the dollar, it’s not just
about exports, it’s about jobs."
Jim Brown, president for facility systems at First Solar, noted that last year the company had 10
megawatts in exports; this year it is expected to be 20 times that. The funding from the Ex-Im Bank
"is going to be a big catalyst for our growth going forward," as First Solar looks to expand
to markets in Asia, India, and Africa.
The bank earlier this year provided a $16 million long-term loan to First Solar for exports to a
photovoltaic project in New Delhi, India.
The Ex-Im Bank is an independent federal agency that works to bolster U.S. jobs by assisting with export
financing for private firms. It does so at no cost to taxpayers.
The Perrysburg First Solar plant, which has a workforce of about 1,200 people, was built in 1999 and with
expansions in 2005 and 2010 can produce about 248 megawatts of photovoltaic cells per year.