Q-Cells, the world's largest independent solar cell manufacturer, yesterday confirmed that it would invest $3.5bn in Mexico to supply US and Latin America markets with a new generation of solar panels. The investment, which will be the German group's first in the Americas and is thought to be the biggest private investment in Mexico this year, highlights the extent to which companies see the country as an increasingly integral part of the North American manufacturing platform. Last week, Ford Motor said that it would invest $3bn in converting its plant near Mexico City from producing pick-up trucks for the local market to manufacturing the Ford Fiesta small car for the North American market. The first phase of the Q-Cells facility, to be located in Mexicali on the border with California, would be completed by 2009 and would produce so-called thin-film cells, which employ much cheaper materials than traditional solar panels. "We can bring costs right down because of the low material input. That will allow us to be very competitive with prices consumers pay for electricity from the grid," Q-Cells said. The company said the panels would be mainly for industrial and commercial use given that they are less efficient than the traditional crystalline solar cells and therefore require more surface area to generate the same amount of electricity. Q-Cells chose Mexico because of its proximity to the US. "In Mexicali, we are close to California and the US market, which we see as the biggest growth market in the coming years," said the company. Most of the production from the first 25-50 megawatt phase of its facility is set to go to the US. Eventually, however, Q-Cells expected to produce between 400-600 megawatts of panels by 2010 from its Mexicali plant, much of which would be sold both in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008