Not to be outdone by Konarka, SCHOTT Solar announced today that it will unveil a new 225 watt polycrystalline photovoltaic module at the Solar Power International show in San Diego, California. The new product shall be manufactured at the company’s North American flagship solar manufacturing facility, currently under construction in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It will be sold under the brand-name SCHOTT Solar Poly 225 and will complement the 310 watt module currently manufactured at SCHOTT Solar’s Billerica, Massachusetts facility.

“The introduction of a 225 watt module to the North American market enables us to meet the demands of an increasingly diverse marketplace,” said Mac Moore, SCHOTT Solar Inc.’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “A module of this size is ideal for a wide range of commercial and residential applications.”

The new module shall be manufactured on automated manufacturing lines in Albuquerque and is expected to begin shipping in the spring of 2009. The plant is expected to produce an initial annual output of approximately 70 MW of PV modules. SCHOTT Solar is designing its flagship production facility to accommodate future growth.

The Albuquerque site is being designed to also produce receivers used in Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) utility-scale power plants.