ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico's growing stature as a hub of solar manufacturing is symbolized by two nondescript, almost windowless steel buildings on a flat, dusty mesa south of Albuquerque.

Inside the buildings, Schott Solar workers are running robotic machines through their paces, testing production on photovoltaic panels and long tubes used in concentrated solar-energy projects.

The arrival of the German-based company will be celebrated with a grand opening ceremony May 11.

Schott has been building solar-energy systems for half a century in Europe, beginning with solar cells for space travel.

The $100 million facility at Mesa del Sol is only the second Schott solar manufacturing plant in the U.S. It is the only one in the world that will produce both photovoltaic panels and the solar thermal receiver tubes for concentrated solar, according to Zane Rakes, director of operations.

Schott joins several other solar product manufacturing plants in central New Mexico. Advent Solar opened a photovoltaic module plant in Albuquerque in 2002. Another German-based company, Signet Solar, is building a 300-megawatt solar photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Belen. An Austin, Texas, startup company, Solar Array Ventures, announced plans in early April to build a manufacturing plant near Albuquerque for large-size, thin-film photovoltaic panels.

Schott's two buildings total 200,000 square feet and are designed to be expanded to four times that size when the plant reaches full production. One building houses the production of the 220-watt photovoltaic modules. The other building contains the manufacturing system for the solar thermal receiver tubes.

Rakes' office is still housed in a portable trailer nearby. Schott focuses on creating quality products, he said, not showy buildings.

Inside the photovoltaic module building, workers and visitors wear hairnets and hard hats. (Human hair can create problems in the production of the polysilicon panels.)

Schott workers speak in European metric measurements. In American measurements, each finished module is about 5 feet tall and almost as wide as a house door.

The modules are created by melding glass with solar cells and an encapsulating opaque material that turns clear during the heating process. Conveyor belts move the module from one process to the next. Bright yellow robotic arms use metal plates with suction cups to lift each module and turn it during various stages. Each module contains 60 solar cells that soak up the sun's rays and convert them to an electric current.

While much of the process is automated, human technicians run quality-control checks on each panel. Every cell must be precisely laid out and of equal height, Rakes explained, to avoid shading of one portion in the module by another.

The photovoltaic module designs have been tested by an independent product-safety certification organization called Underwriters Laboratories, which stamps approved products with the familiar UL symbol.

Each module must withstand onslaughts by wind, rain, hail, snow and big temperature shifts over a period of 20 to 30 years. "When you are making a product designed to last that many years in the elements, quality is important," said Rakes, who worked for Intel for 16 years before joining Schott.

In the second building, the first tall stack of solar thermal receivers waits to be shipped out. The receivers consist of steel cylinders inserted into heavy-duty glass tubes that are slightly more than 3 inches in diameter. The 13-foot-long tubes are laid lengthwise inside a mirrored parabolic trough that concentrates the sun's rays onto the fluid-filled steel tubes — a system known as concentrated solar power.

The fluid heats up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit and flows through a heat exchange system. This generates steam and turns a turbine that generates electricity.

Like the photovoltaic panels, the receivers must be tough enough to endure extreme temperature changes. "It has to be able to take the worst nature throws at it," Rakes said.

The thermal receivers have been tested by nearby Sandia National Laboratory, which tests products for several solar manufacturers, and by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Rakes said Schott Solar designed the manufacturing plant to be a certified LEED green building, standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Inside, the manufacturing process uses little water, while outside stormwater runoff is channeled into landscaping. Landscapers are installing low-water-use plants and reseeding barren, graded soil with native grasses. The buildings contain high-efficiency heating and cooling systems.

But the electricity is still provided by a utility company, not from solar energy. Eventually, Rakes said, the plant will install solar panels to serve as a demonstration and test site, in addition to generating some of the facility's power.

Beyond building green, Schott prides itself on hiring locally, according to Rakes. He said 90 percent of the facility's 300 employees are from New Mexico. Many were sent to Schott's European plants for a couple of months to train. "You can teach people the theories in class, but it helps for them to work side by side with experienced (employees)," said Brian Lynch, public-relations manager for Schott North America. "Later, if there's a problem during the manufacturing process here, they can call for help overseas and know who to ask for personally."

The security company, janitorial service and even the popular True Blue burrito van in the Schott parking lot are locally owned, Rakes said.

If Schott builds the plant to full capacity as planned, at least 1,200 more people could find work at the company.

Lynch said Schott funded the Mesa del Sol plant's first phase, avoiding the need to seek outside investors during the recent financial crisis. Counties have offered tax incentives to solar manufacturers, and Gov. Bill Richardson's new Green Jobs Cabinet is working on ways to attract even more to the state.

New Mexico is a prime place to locate solar manufacturing plants, Rakes and Lynch said. It offers close access to research partners such as Sandia National Laboratory. It is in close proximity to utilities looking to install renewable-energy projects to power the Southwest. Plus, it has land in the state's southern reaches that could serve as prime locations for utility-scale solar installations.

"The closer you can be to the end user, the better," Rakes said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.