Nanosolar's German thin-film solar plant will be located in Luckenwalde, a town south of Berlin, according to a Gunther Portfolio post, which also has photos of the site.
The company, which is developing a solar technology using copper-indium-gallium-diselenide instead of silicon, last year closed a $75 million Series-C round of funding and said the money, combined with government subsidies, would add up to $100 million (see Nanosolar Gets $100M for PV).
Nanosolar said it was building a 430-megawatt plant in San Jose, expected to be completed this year, and another factory, which would assemble more than 1 million solar panels annually, near Berlin (see Nanosolar to Build in San Jose).
CEO Martin Roscheisen confirmed Tuesday that preparatory work has begun on the German site. The Luckenwalde facility, expected to begin making panels in the first quarter of next year, will be able to make "multi-100" megawatts of solar panels annually once it's fully ramped up, he said.
The company hasn't yet released an update about the San Jose plant. But in an e-mail Tuesday, Roscheisen said the German plant was still scheduled to begin operations after the San Jose plant and added that more news about Nanosolar production would be coming soon.