ROSSFORD, Ohio — Pilkington North America in Rossford makes glass for automobiles, buildings and soon solar panels. The plant plans to begin making transparent conductive oxide glass for FirstSolar.
"A plant that's the oldest plant in North America," said Todd Huffman, Global Director of Solar Glass for Pilkington. "We're getting ready to put the most advance technology that we have into this facility."
Huffman said every FirstSolar panel has a piece on the front and back. The piece on the front is the glass NSG Group sells to FirstSolar.
Although Toledo is often known as the Glass City, Rossford might not be too far behind.
"Our company invests hundreds of millions of dollars around the globe every year, and a big chunk of the investment is going right here in Rossford," Huffman said.
This investment is something Mayor Neil MacKinnon III is glad to hear. He said the plant has deeper roots in Rossford. In fact, Rossford became a city because of the creation of the plant 125 years ago.
"Edward Ford built that plant on the banks of the Maumee River, founded our community and the town was built around it," MacKinnon said. "It's one of our largest employers and their going to add to those ranks here soon."
Huffman said about 20 new jobs will be added because of this investment. In addition, 350 jobs will be retained.
"It's a proud moment for us that we are able to take our glass, our product, put it into solar panels that people are able to use throughout the country, throughout the world, in order to reduce our carbon footprint," Huffman said.
Huffman told WTOL 11 the plant will be able to start shipping glass to First Solar in 2025. There are two other NSG plants that have been making solar glass since 2020. One is in Vietnam and another in Luckey.
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