Hyundai Heavy Industries, the South Korea-based shipbuilder and maker of heavy machinery, is expanding its activities in the renewable energy game.

In 2008, the industrial giant decided that its solar cell factory in Eumseong, South Korea wasn’t big enough, and invested $253 million to enlarge it. And in March, Hyundai broke into the wind industry by building the largest wind turbine installation in South Korea.

Now, in an attempt to make the company “the center of the international photovoltaic (PV) industry,” according to Hyundai CEO Min Keh-sik, the company recently announced it will help build a solar PV installation in southeastern Arizona. At a generating capacity of 150 megawatts (MW), the plant will be big — 2.5 times larger than any other PV plant currently in operation, according to Osha Davidson writing for The Energy Collective.

Hyundai’s plant in Dragoon, Arizona — along with a smaller 25-MW plant the company will build simultaneously in nearby Cochise — are both expected to be up and running by late 2012. The two plants will cost a combined total of $700 million to build, according to the Phoenix New Times. Matinee Energy, an American firm, will help in both construction and financing.

According to Phoenix New Times, these project may just the beginning: in coming years, Hyundai is aiming to install a total of 900 MW of solar in Arizona, according to Phoenix New Times.