Phoenix, based near Munich, already has international subsidiaries in Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Singapore and Australia. Its new office would be the firm’s first in North America.

“California is especially attractive for market entry owing to the favourable market incentives prevailing for PV systems, the size of the market, and the huge potential for the large-scale project business,” the company says.

In 2008 Phoenix, which develops both rooftop and open-field PV projects, signed a €450m ($677.2m) module supply agreement with California-based Solyndra, which makes thin-film modules based on copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technology.

A Phoenix official recently commented that the company is in talks with a potential Chinese partner to enter that market, and is also considering opening a branch in Malaysia to capitalise on its new solar feed-in tariff.

In mid-November Phoenix downgraded its full-year earnings guidance for 2009 from €520m to between €430m-480m. Its third-quarter revenue tumbled 40% to €89.7m due to the sluggish debt-finance markets blocking many planned large-scale PV projects.