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SunPower to build solar panel factory in California

Governor Schwarzenegger joined SunPower Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner (left) to announce that SunPower will locate its first US solar manufacturing facility in California

SunPower Corporation is to open a new US solar panel manufacturing facility in Milpitas, California, by the end of the year.

The company announced yesterday that it is working on the project with Singapore-owned engineering firm Flextronics Industrial.

SunPower, which was founded in Silicon Valley almost exactly 25 years ago,currently makes its solar panels at a factory in the Philippines.

It said the new facility would create 100 jobs this year, with production capacity for 75 megwatts of solar panels each year.

Ultimately, the facility will create 300 jobs according to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The facility’s location would allow SunPower to supply homes, commercial and public facilities across the Western United States with solar panels, it said.

SunPower CEO Tom Werner said: “Solar systems are affordable today for many kinds of customers in the private and public sectors. We are installing solar across the state and around the world – from rooftops to parking lots to power plants – and this manufacturing facility will help supply the growing demand for all of these applications, providing emission-free, renewable solar power.”

“We are proud to have been selected as SunPower’s manufacturing partner in California,” said EC Sykes, president of Flextronics Industrial.

“Today’s announcement solidifies Flextronics’ leading position as the clean tech supply chain partner of choice for OEMs participating in this important and rapidly growing market sector.”

California

Mr Werner said California’s solar policies, Renewable Portfolio Standard and incentives for green manufacturing had offered it the confidence to invest in the state.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: “SunPower is not only enabling homes and businesses to conserve energy and save money by going solar, they are also creating jobs at a time when they are needed most.”

The new SunPower facility comes as a direct result of a $24 million federal grant from the US Department of Energy, which funded a three-year research and development effort for solar panel manufacturing equipment.

It funded the development of commercial rooftop and tracking power plant systems that will use the solar panels made at the new plant.

SunPower launched its new T5 Solar Roof Tile last year, which it calls the “solar industry’s most powerful rooftop system”, as another result of the federal funding.

The company is to deliver 200 megawatts of the technology to Southern California Edison for a large solar photovoltaic installation program.