First Solar is currently constructing a second manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix), this year. The expansion coincides with news that Solyndra , another American solar company that received a $535 million dollar federally-backed loan, is failing.

Solydra’s downturn prompted advisors this week to pressure President Obama into backing out of visiting the company’s plant for fear of embarrassing the White House, according to The Washington Post, and sparked mass skepticism in the American solar industry as a whole.

First Solar, however, hasn’t slowed its stride—it’s Arizona expansion aides in supporting other large-scale projects, and the company does not show signs of faltering. One of the projects, Agua Caliente, a power plant in Yuma, will eventually power over 100,000 homes, and when completed, will constitute the largest solar project in the world, according to First Solar.

Melanie Friedman, spokesperson for First Solar, explained that the new manufacturing facility brings more to the table than enthusiasm for the industry as a whole.

“If you look at the Mesa plant, it will double our solar manufacturing capacity,” said Friedman. “And the plant will create about 600 full-time jobs.”

Freidman said that the expansion into Arizona helps First Solar branch across the U.S.

“We started manufacturing in the U.S. with our Ohio facility,” she said. “That facility manufactures just under 250 megawatts per hour. We’ve had so much growing demand in the Southwest, so, with our other projects going into construction, we really want to be able to supply them. It makes sense to collocate.”

Late last week, on NPR, Gordon Johnson, a senior research analyst from Axiom Capital Management stated that despite the optimism from First Solar, the company was in fact, “In big, big trouble.” Johnson bases his opinion on the fact that Asia proves to be a strong competitor in the solar industry.

Although Friedman could not comment on Johnson’s assertion (First Solar is currently in a quiet period before quarterly earnings announcements), First Solar earned $2.6 billion last year, and according to executive TK Kallenbach, the company maintains optimism—after all, First Solar’s ability to produce panels without silicone means that the company can produce for 55 cents a watt what takes China over a dollar.

However they stand economically, research analysts, investors, and the government seem to be looking to First Solar to gauge the future of the industry.

Image courtesy of AP.