At GetSolar, we focus above all else on solar energy here in America. So much so that we sometimes forget that solar energy systems and technology are being developed, designed and installed in so many other parts of the world. An announcement yesterday, made in Baoding, China, should serve to refresh our memory.

Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) — one of the world’s largest vertically integrated makers of photovoltaic (PV) wafers, cells and modules — announced it has inked a deal with MAETEL, a Spanish engineering and installation firm that’s part of the still larger A.C.S. infrastructure development company in Europe.

Under the terms of the contract, Yingli Green Energy will equip MAETEL with 33 megawatts (MW) of solar PV modules, from October 2010 to April 2011, which will be installed at a solar PV plant in Curbans, a city located in the southeast of France. The solar PV installation will be France’s largest to date.

Liansheng Miao, Chairman and CEO of Yingli Green Energy, had the following to say about the deal that will make his company a notable name in France’s solar market and overall economy:

We are pleased to announce this exciting cooperation with MAETEL. This contract provides more positive visibility into the demand momentum in the emerging European solar markets. Moreover, we are glad to see that our customers in existing markets are actively exploring market opportunities beyond their domestic scope, which will help us further diversify our market exposure.

The company that owns the Curbans plant, GDF Suez Group, says the record-setting solar facility should pump out 43.5 million kilowatt hours of clean energy each year — enough to offset some 120,000 metric tons of atmospheric CO2 emissions.