NEW BEDFORD – Bay State solar-energy technology company Konarka Technologies Inc. has signed a $10 million long-term lease on a 257,000-square-foot building in the former Polaroid complex in New Bedford.

The Lowell, Mass.-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar firm began operations last month at what it says is the world’s largest roll-to-roll thin-film solar manufacturing facility. The facility is located in a New Bedford Business Park building on Duchaine Boulevard, and was the home of Polaroid Corp.’s advanced printing technologies until three years ago. More recently, it was used by MultiLayer Coating Technologies, which ceased operations there a year ago.

Konarka said it has also hired former Polaroid engineers, and plans to hire more than 100 more employees as it ramps up operations over the next two to three years. The factory currently has fewer than two dozen employees.

“We are excited that Konarka is bringing new jobs to help further drive the economy and interest in the city of New Bedford, and we are proud that our city is home once again to an industry-leading manufacturing plant,” New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang said in a statement.

Konarka has developed a product called Power Plastic, a low-cost material that converts light to energy for indoor, portable, outdoor and building-integrated uses. Officials at Konarka say that Power Plastic is lightweight, flexible and more versatile than traditional solar materials.

The company will be able to produce more than 10 million square meters of the product in New Bedford each year, Howard Berke, executive chairman and co-founder of Konarka, said in a statement.

The technology was first developed by Dr. Sukant Tripathy, a former provost of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and founder of the Plastics Innovation Center, and Dr. Alan Heeger, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2000 and who serves as Konarka’s chief scientist.

“Since 2001, Konarka has taken revolutionary lab discoveries from its founding scientists to pilot production for initial customers and now to full-scale manufacturing with the near future capacity of one gigawatt per year, which could contribute to the power and electricity needs of our nation and the avoidance of [carbon dioxide] emissions,” President and CEO Rick Hess said in a statement. The company “is furthering the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) vision to reach its goal of making solar electricity from photovoltaics cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity,” he added.

Konarka has secured more than $100 million in venture capital and private-equity funding, and also has received $18 million in U.S. and European government research grants. The company will receive state and local tax breaks under the Mass. Economic Development Incentive Program (EDIP) to help offset the cost of its expansion.

“This facility has state-of-the-art printing capabilities that are ready for full operation, with the future potential to produce over a gigawatt of flexible plastic solar modules per year,” Konarka’s Berke said.

Konarka is the sixth alternative energy company that has set up shop in New Bedford over the last few years, New Bedford Economic Development Council (EDC) Executive Director Matthew A. Morrissey told New England Business Bulletin.

Konarka Technologies Inc. is an early-stage green-technology company that is developing and making polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies for the solar-energy industry. To learn more, visit www.konarka.com.

Additional information from the New Bedford Economic Development Council (EDC), a public-private economic development partnership for the Whaling City, is available at www.nbedc.org. News and information from the City of New Bedford are available at www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us.