Sanyo North America, subsidiary of the North American regional headquarters of Sanyo Electric, based in San Diego, has officially opened its latest manufacturing plant for solar PV products – the Salem Energy and Technology Park.
The plant, based in Salem, Oregon, is now fully opened for business, with production already in progress. The plant is designed to produce silicon ingots and wafers for Sanyo’s HIT (heterjunction with intrinsic thin-layer) solar cells and modules.
“With increasing awareness of the environment, more attention is focused on solar power, an area of strength for Sanyo, as we are an industry leader with our HIT solar panels,” said Mitsuru Homma, executive vice president and member of the board of Sanyo Electric. “Our plant here in Salem will be key to making the materials needed to make finished solar modules, which will be installed to help create a more sustainable LEED system as a part of a home or business here in the USA and for Sanyo customers around the world.”
Although the new facility is now up-and-running it isn’t expected to reach full production capacity (70MW annually) until at least April 2010, the company has an overall goal of 600MW capacity by this time.
