PERRYSBURG — Under the gray skies of Northwest Ohio on a partly cloudy winter day, the gray buildings of
First Solar sprawl along the business campus off Ohio 795.
They’re all connected by an array of solar panels powering the plant and offices. And, even on a day
that’s more silvery than sunny, the panels are snatching the rays from the sky.
Plant manager Clarence Hertzfeld III pointed to a real-time computer graphic in the lobby that tells how
much solar power is being used by the First Solar campus that day.
“North America’s largest solar manufacturer is in Wood County’s backyard,” he said. “The story here is
this campus’s transformation.”
There’s about to be another piece added to the First Solar picture.
About a half mile down Route 795, a $400-million plant is under construction in Lake Township. A
1.2-million-square-feet facility, which will also produce the Series 6 thin-film PV modules, is being
built. It’s expected to be online this fall, with 500 employees and a $300 million payroll.
“By the end of the year, we’ll be shipping out of that building,” Hertzfeld said.
The Series 4, a 2-feet by 4-feet solar panel weighing 26 pounds, has given way to the Series 6, which is
bigger than a traditional door, but thinner than a window and weighs 76 pounds.
“That is the background of everything we have historically produced,” Hertzfeld said of the Series 4.
“The Series 6 product is what we have going forward.”
Hertzfeld grew up in the area, part of the Hertzfeld Poultry family, graduating from Anthony Wayne High
School and the University of Cincinnati. He put his engineering skills to use in southern Ohio, before a
job with Dana Corp. led him back to Northwest Ohio.
He truly seems geeked out by his job, spending hours talking about the technology, leading tours,
pointing out possible photos and touting his staff.
The global plants include two in Germany, six in Malaysia and one in Vietnam.
Beginnings
Harold McMaster, an inventor with over 100 patents from Perrysburg, was the brains behind First Solar,
Hertzfeld said. McMaster, who died in 2003, was called the “glass genius” by Fortune magazine.
McMaster founded the company in 1990 as Solar Cells Inc. and the Florida Corporation in 1993 with JD
Polk. In 1999 it was purchased by True North Partners LLC, who rebranded it as First Solar Inc. The
company went public in 2006, trading on the NASDAQ, according to Wikipedia.
The lobby of First Solar’s research and development area is dedicated to its history. There are panels
from the beginning, leading up to Series 6. The entrance to the test area is named the “Jim Nolan Legacy
Hall … the Story Continues,” after one of its visionaries.
There are essentially two ways of harnessing solar power, using cadmium telluride (CdTe) as a
semiconductor to produce CdTe-panels, which is what First Solar does. The other is crystalline silicon
technology.
Hertzfeld said First Solar’s way is less expensive, is more efficient and leaves less of a footprint on
the planet.
“We have most of the patents that exist around CadTel,” he said.
In the R&D building, chemists, physicists and engineers are working on improving the panels to
get more energy. They also put the panels through every rigorous test and weather imaginable, including
searing heat and frigid temperatures.
“When they come to our facility and see what we have, they drool,” Hertzfeld said of drawing talent to
the company.
2016 Restructuring
A drastic decline in prices led to a 2016 restructuring.
Hertzfeld said the company’s leaders got together and decided to retool and launch the Series 6.
“That transfer was forced and necessary because of a 50 percent drop in selling prices,” he said. “That
‘16 reduction was all about long, sustained production for us.”
That meant firing almost every employee on First Solar’s Perrysburg campus.
Hertzfeld said he’d been through something similar at Dana and he aimed to be transparent and helpful.
Job fairs, with 50 companies, were set up for employees.
“We wanted that separation to be good,” he said.
It would have been easy to pack up in Perrysburg and move to another country. But this was home and
headquarters, Hertzfeld said. He also acknowledged the support of the state, county and local officials
and their incentives.
“As we look at our new Series 6 plant expansion it was with the great support we received of our local
and state agencies and with the change in corporate tax structure that helped solidify the decision to
build a new Series 6 production plant and expand on our historical roots here in Wood County,” he said.

“We are proud to be here in Ohio as the largest North American solar panel manufacturer creating new
high-tech manufacturing jobs and contributing to the local, regional and state economy.”
Tax incentives, approved by the Wood County Commissioners in May for the new Lake Township plant, include
$898,000 that will be paid to the Lake Local School District annually for 15 years. The cash infusion
led Lake leaders to halt talks about putting a 3-mill, or more, levy on the November 2018 ballot.
First Solar has returned to the original headcount of 1,000 employees after getting back online in early
2018.
“We are back at that headcount and going to be putting more in,” Hertzfeld said.
According to a 2003 Sentinel-Tribune article on First Solar, the Perrysburg plant was constructed in 2000
at a cost of $16 million.
Jobs, jobs, jobs
Jay Lake refuses to use the “f word” to describe First Solar’s operations. This is not a factory, said
the manager of community relations and head of manufacturing workforce development.
“This is advanced manufacturing,” Lake said.
The environment is more than shoveling coal or installing a widget, he said. Most workers are monitoring
computer screens, making sure the robots are doing their jobs.
There’s a gym on site for workers to use along with a cafe that features a different daily entree, wraps,
frozen yogurt, four different kinds of soups and made-to-order pizza. Even with the amenities, it’s not
like the company can take a “help wanted” ad out in the paper and be set.
“The market is very challenging right now. I call it unprecedented in this area,” Lake said.
The challenge is finding workers at the existing plant, plus another 500 for the Lake Township one that’s
being built. There will also be competition down the road in Rossford when an Amazon fulfillment center
opens with 1,500 employees.
First Solar has a few ways to approach hiring. One is to hire anyone with a good attitude and work ethic,
then train. A nine-month training class on the Owens Community College campus was about to start in
January.
Another way is communication in the area high schools, such as Penta Career Center.
“We’d love for you to make a career here, and that’s possible,” Lake said is the message that he
promotes.
It doesn’t take a college degree to succeed at First Solar, Lake said. For example, of the four
production managers, all started in ground roles; one has a bachelor’s degree, one has an associate’s
and two have high school educations.
First Solar’s out-of-the box thinking with employees continues at the plant, which operates 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, through the holidays.
They work 12-hour shifts in a day, and it’s a seven-days-a-week operation. The schedule is two days on,
two days off, then three days on. There are four crews each working the 6 a.m.-6 p.m. shift and the 6
p.m.-6 a.m.
There are no swing shifts, like traditional plants.
The base pay is $13 an hour — with more paid to the night shift — and Lake said compensation can quickly
increase.
“We run this schedule globally,” Hertzfeld said.
On the floor
“This is where all the magic happens,” Hertzfeld said, looking over the sprawling floor on the Perrysburg
campus.
A panel’s journey on the 1-mile-long conveyor belt, from start to finish, is 3.5 hours.
A lot of the technology is top secret. See the fact box accompanying this story for a breakdown of the
process.
The employees move around, alternating between monitoring the panels’ procession down the belt and
looking on computer screens.
Lake said the work is appealing to the younger generation, which is used to screen time.
Workers can be seen riding three-wheeled bikes with baskets on the back around the floor.
But it’s sometimes difficult to spot a person working on the massive plant floor. The people are
interspersed with the robots and a conveyor belt that swings more than a mile around the plant.
The workers are making sure the robots do their jobs. When there’s a fail, a panel can be heard crashing
into a receptacle.
Hertzfeld said he tries not to cringe when a panel is trashed. Every bit of product is recycled at First
Solar, he said.
Lake mentioned the saying “cradle to grave.” With the recycling there, parts live again.
“It’s not a grave, it’s cradle to cradle,” he said.
The plant, year round, is a comfortable 74 degrees, with no humidity.
Every First Solar plant looks the same. Lake said if someone closed his eyes and was dropped onto the
floor of a Malaysia or Vietnam line, he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from the Perrysburg
setup.
The Perrysburg plant produces 3,300 panels a day. The Lake Township one will do double that number.
A panel’s life is about 25 years.