MILLBURY — Before even opening, the First Solar expansion is getting an expansion.

The addition to the second plant, which is currently under construction in Lake Township, was approved by the Wood County Commissioners on Thursday.

“Basically, First Solar is building a bigger plant than what they proposed,” said Wade Gottschalk, Wood County Economic Development Commission director. “It’s about 10% bigger.”

The company will add $25 million in real property, 200,000 square feet and an additional $10 million in equipment.

The expansion was first proposed at 1.8 million square feet. The new building is expected to open in 2023 and employ 500 workers.

The 65% tax abatement agreement, which was approved with the first expansion, was amended to include the extra space.

“It’s not really an addition, it’s just a bigger building,” Gottschalk said.

The original 15-year, 65% tax abatement agreement gave a total of $1.1 million to Lake Local Schools in taxes and annual lump sum cash. The new agreement adds $55,000 a year, Gottschalk said.

Lake Township will also get about $20,000 in addition to the $200,000 a year from First Solar, said Police Chief Mark Hummer, who is also the township administrator.

“I don’t think we’ve really earmarked it for anything at this point,” Hummer said of the money.

He added that it would probably go toward rising fuel costs for police, fire and EMS.

“I think the demand is so high for their product. I’m obviously very happy that they’re expanding,” Hummer said of First Solar. “I think that at some point Lake Township and Wood County will be the solar capital of the world.”

A small portion of the new expansion sits on a portion of land that was recently rezoned.

The Lake Township Trustees, after some relentless questioning by a couple of neighbors, approved the rezoning 2-1.

Last month, they heard the zoning application of First Solar which was requesting a change from A-1 agriculture to M-2 heavy industrial for a parcel of 10 acres located at 6562 Keller Road.

Also during the hearing, the trustees considered an amendment to the Lake Township Zoning Resolutions, article V, height and lot area requirements for business and industrial uses. The change is from the current 25% lot coverage to 50% lot coverage.

Trustee Lorie Davis voted no, and Richard Welling and Ken Gilsdorf were in favor.

A few First Solar neighbors were in attendance and said that the company shouldn’t get any more zoning variances. There is standing water that smells, they said.

Welling said the water issue could be Mother Nature’s fault.

“Everybody’s flooded out,” Welling said. “We just had too much rain this year. I still have soybeans in the field.”

The trustees also said that the variance is needed for the township zoning code, not just for First Solar.

First Solar first opened a plant in Perrysburg Township 20 years ago, built a nearby factory down the road in Lake Township in 2019, then announced the expansion last year.

“First Solar applied for and secured approval for a minor expansion of our new factory currently being constructed in Lake Township,” said Mike Koralewski, chief manufacturing operations officer, in a statement provided to the Sentinel-Tribune.

“This additional space is intended to accommodate technology and process enhancements, and will have no impact on the planned commissioning of the facility in the first half of 2023. Once complete, our three factory footprint will be the largest vertically integrated solar manufacturing complex outside of China, solidifying Northwest Ohio’s position as the home of American solar.”