Applied's Solar Technology Center is comprised of laboratory and office buildings covering more than 400,000 square feet and contains an entire Applied SunFab thin film manufacturing line and a complete crystalline silicon pilot process, according to Applied (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

Applied first broke ground in Xi'an in 2006, the company said. The total investment in the multi-phase project is more than $250 million dollars, Applied said.

The facility includes a solar technology center for R&D, engineering, product demonstration, testing and training for crystalline silicon and thin film solar module manufacturing equipment and processes, Applied said. Employees in the center will work with local suppliers to test and qualify new materials and tools and evaluate potential new cost saving technologies, the company said.

"In the laboratories, local suppliers of systems and materials will be able to work closely with our engineers to reduce development costs, accelerate the industrialization of clean energy technology and contribute to decreasing the cost of solar," said Charlie Gay, president, Applied Solar, in a statement.

"We believe this technology center will provide important contributions to driving down the cost of solar around the world," said Mark Pinto, senior vice president and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions business.

The Solar Technology Center has the largest solar array in Xi'an, a 56 kW array on a parking lot structure, according to Applied. The company said it is in its 25th year of operating in China and currently has more than 800 employees and 13 offices in the country, including roughly 300 employees in Xi'an.

Xi'an is located in the Shaanxi province in northwest China.