First Solar announced Wednesday it plans to build a 48 megawatt ground-mounted solar power plant in Nevada, which once installed would be the largest such facility in North America.

Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar will design, engineer, and build the photovoltaic plant for Sempra Generation, a power provider and subsidiary of San Diego, California-based Sempra Energy.

The project would expand the 10 megawatt power plant First Solar completed for Sempra in 2008 near Boulder City, Nevada, about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas. Once completed in 2010, the expanded facility will have a capacity of 58 megawatts.

“Sempra Generation’s decision to use First Solar in expanding the El Dorado solar plant demonstrates our ability to provide a cost-effective energy solution for utility-scale projects,” said John Carrington, First Solar executive vice president of marketing and business development, in a statement.

Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

First Solar, which makes thin-film solar cells using cadmium telluride semiconductor material, is one the world’s leading solar module manufacturers. Last month, the company announced that by year's end it would have the capacity to produce more than 1 gigawatt of modules per year—the equivalent of an average-sized nuclear power plant.

In February, the company said it had reduced its manufacturing cost for solar modules in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 98 cents per watt, a long-standing goal of the industry. At that cost, solar power becomes increasingly competitive with conventional sources of electricity.

Sempra Generation said it will own and operate the new PV power plant and sell the electricity to a utility.