FACTBOX-Solarworld's offer for Opel plants

Nov 19 (Reuters) - German solar company SolarWorld (SWVG.DE) on Wednesday announced a surprise offer to buy General Motors Corp's (GM.N) four German Opel plants as well as its research centre in Ruesselsheim, Germany.[ID:nLJ453801]

Solarworld -- which makes solar-grade silicon, solar cells and panels -- is one of the three largest solar groups in the world and one of the fastest-growing companies in Germany with more than 2,000 employees.

Here are five facts about the offer:

* Solarworld said it could offer up to 250 million euros ($315.6 million) in cash and another 750 million euros in credit lines for Opel's German plants.

* The four plants are located in the German towns of Ruesselsheim, Bochum, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach.

* Solarworld said the offer was conditional on the German government granting loan guarantees to Opel and the German carmaker being split off from parent GM.

* Solarworld also said it wanted GM to pay compensation of 40,000 euros per Opel worker, totalling about 1 billion euros.

* Solarworld said it planned to use the Opel plants to make a new generation of energy-efficient, low-emissions vehicles.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; Editing by Erica Billingham)