The sight of a massive, utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant under construction can be awe inspiring, with millions of shimmering glass panels lined up, row after row, across swaths of wide-open desert. While the clean technology on display may be visually dramatic and a testament to solar power’s coming of age, consider the personnel situation. The tradespeople and the professional and administrative staff hired to put these installations together are working on types of projects that have, until recently, never been built before. Matching the capabilities, experience and temperament of prospective employees with the unique requirements of these first-of-their-kind construction projects is the purview of CLP Resources, one of First Solar’s staffing partners.

What do Walmart, Apple, and First Solar have in common? As companies that manufacture and source equipment and materials inside the United States as well as locations around the world, they must deal with the gauntlet of customs rules and regulations in each port of call, and keep track of their freight as it ships through the export-import sequence. These high-profile firms share something else in common. Rather than deal with the complexities and headaches involved with customs compliance and international logistics on their own, they partner with Fortune 500 problem-solver Expeditors to help them along the way.

Before First Solar started scaling its initial manufacturing operations in Perrysburg, Ohio, in the mid-2000s, times had turned tough in the greater Toledo area where the company traces its roots. The once-numerous automotive industry supply-chain companies had dwindled, and many of the surviving firms struggled to keep their doors open, with thousands of middle-class working men and women laid off in the process. When the fledgling thin-film photovoltaics manufacturer began to assemble its own network of suppliers, a pair of local outfits from very different parts of the value chain—Conforming Matrix and Pro-Pak Industries—rose to the challenge, saving jobs and creating new ones. They remain key partners among First Solar’s 200-plus suppliers located in Ohio.

One key to First Solar’s manufacturing success is its ability to fully process its thin-film photovoltaic panels in a matter of hours, with very high yields at a cost below that of competing technologies. Engineered glass enters a fully automated production system and runs through a series of deposition, thermal, etching, and cleaning steps that create a thin layer of photoactive semiconductor materials sandwiched between two pieces of glass. The panel then moves into the back-end assembly area, where adhesives are dispensed, lamination performed, junction boxes and other components attached, and final testing conducted. When completed, the now-operational energy-generating devices are binned and sorted, then picked up and placed by brawny industrial robots into shipping containers.

When someone describes how much of a solar power plant site is covered with photovoltaic modules, the term “under glass” is often used. The reason for this is obvious: the first thing you notice about the panels is the flat piece of thin glass, about eight square feet in size, that makes up the front of the energy-generating device. The image created by thousands or even millions of modules stretching as far as the eye can see across a utility-scale site resembles nothing less than a sea of glass.

Before the first post is pounded into the desert floor, let alone the first solar module is installed, every inch of a solar power plant site must be surveyed. A properly conducted survey plays a critical role in the design process for these massive construction jobs, optimizing the layout of solar arrays and minimizing the amount of dirt that must be bladed and moved before the steel support systems can be deployed. Some of the largest sites can extend for several miles, making the task even more daunting.

First Solar’s utility-scale PV solar projects are providing good jobs for U.S. Armed Forces veterans returning from combat overseas. Case in point: the 550 megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., which First Solar is constructing for MidAmerican Solar. Topaz Construction Manager Raymond Christian, a former U.S. Marine, has a number of veterans on his crew who returned from tours in Iraq to a challenging job market at home.

While solar power generation begins with photovoltaic modules harvesting the sun’s rays and turning those photons into electrons, it’s the inverters that efficiently convert that captured energy into user-friendly electricity. The two devices represent the fundamental building blocks of any grid-tied solar system. When First Solar engineers and constructs a multi-hundred-megawatt utility-scale plant, it must procure hundreds of the sizeable power electronics units from partner companies that are capable of consistently providing a high-quality, reliable product and world-class service. For game-changing projects like Sarnia II, Agua Caliente, and Antelope Valley Solar Ranch, the supplier of choice has been SMA America, a division of market-leading SMA Solar Technology.

Cattle have recently been added to the workforce of over 500 construction workers at the 550 megawatt Topaz Solar Farms project in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., that First Solar is building for MidAmerican Solar. The bovine contingent, a hand-selected herd on loan from a local rancher, is charged with vegetation management on several thousand acres of project and stewardship land, helping to reduce fire hazard in the hot, dry summer months. The approach, which is both traditional and unconventional, aligns with First Solar’s commitment to sustainable development: avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating environmental impacts.  First Solar worked closely with local and national conservation groups to ensure Topaz addressed all environmental concerns in developing and constructing the project. Sheep grazing is also being considered as a similarly benign vegetation control method during the wetter winter growing season.

Part 3 in a series:  First Solar spends more than $1 billion annually with over 1,000 U.S. suppliers across 35 states. In this ongoing series, we will explore the inspiring stories of companies growing in partnership with us.

Part 2 in a series:  First Solar spends more than $1 billion annually with over 1,000 U.S. suppliers across 35 states. In this ongoing series, we will explore the inspiring stories of companies growing in partnership with us.

Part 1 in a series:  First Solar spends more than $1 billion annually with over 1,000 U.S. suppliers across 35 states. In this ongoing series, we will explore the inspiring stories of companies growing in partnership with us.