Sanyo Electric started operation of new solar cell parts factory in US

(November 11, 2009)

TOKYO, JAPAN --Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. has started operation of a new factory to manufacture silicon ingots and wafers for solar cells. The construction of the factory was started fall last year in Salem, Oregon, the United States. This factory will serve as a production base of Sanyo Solar of Oregon, which was established in September 2008, and is planned to produce a 70-MW capacity of solar cells annually by April 2010. Together with the operating factory of Sanyo Solar USA, based in California, Sanyo Electric intends to establish an annual manufacturing capacity of 100 MW by fiscal 2010 in the United States.

With the aim of gaining a greater share in the U.S. market, Sanyo Electric has increased the number of production bases in the past few years mainly in the United States. The company also established in December 2008 a Monterrey plant of Sanyo Energy in Nuevo Leon, Mexico to enhance its production capability of proprietary "heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer" (HIT) solar cells.