Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) announced plans to establish a 30MW solar laminate manufacturing facility in France. The company has started its initial site selection process and is evaluating various sites, particularly in the Alsace region.

"France is one of the world's fastest growing and most progressive solar markets,” Mark Morelli, ECD's president and CEO, said. “It has expressed its long-term support of alternative energy in the Grenelle de l'environnement objectives, and the recent change to its feed-in-tariff structure establishes a sustainable foundation to meet those objectives. We are pleased that France is continuing to support the development of high added-value technology and innovative solutions like UNI-SOLAR laminates, which protect the aesthetics of France's cultural heritage by integrating into the building architecture. We are also pleased that France is clearly showing leadership to avoid the speculative bubble we have seen in solar energy in other markets in the past.

"We relocated our European headquarters to Paris last year, and believe it is now an excellent time to locate manufacturing in this market close to our channel partners and customers," added Morelli. “With the new tariff structure resolved, and the high concentration of low-load bearing buildings that are ideally suited for our lightweight and low impact UNI-SOLAR solutions, we see growing demand for our solar products in France. We look forward to working with French officials to identify the right support to realize this project, and to create local jobs in both research and development and manufacturing.”

Expected terms of the project, including anticipated launch date, were not disclosed and are subject to completion.