September 26, 2008

San Diego, CA, USA: Sanyo to Construct US Manufacturing Plant

Sanyo North America Corporation will construct a new plant for the manufacture of silicon ingot and solar wafers in the Salem Renewable Energy and Technology Park, having received approval from the city council in the City of Salem, Oregon.

The plant is planned to begin operations in October 2009, and be at full operation by April 2010 with a production capacity of approximately 70 MW, bringing the total ingot and wafer production capacity in America to approximately 100 MW.

The facility will cost approximately $80 million.

SANYO is augmenting its facilities with the necessary equipment and construction of new facilities for future growth in response to market demand, moving forward to reach goals set for an annual global production capacity of at least 600 MW by FY 2010. To increase ingot and wafer production, a fundamental part of the solar cell, the second plant in the US will be constructed and organized by a new company, SANYO Solar of Oregon LLC.

SANYO first started researching and developing amorphous solar cells in 1975 and was the world's first to commercialize amorphous-type solar cell production in 1980. In 1997, SANYO started mass production and sales of its world-leading conversion efficiency HIT solar cells. SANYO currently manufactures the silicon ingot and wafers in the US, the solar cells in Japan, with module assembly plants located in Mexico, Hungary and Japan.

Further details about: Sanyo