China’s Suntech to set up U.S. manufacturing plant in Arizona

Wuxi, China-based Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE:STP) said it’s planning to put its first U.S. manufacturing plant in the Greater Phoenix area of Arizona.

The plant—expected to have an initial production capacity of 30 megawatts—is projected to start construction in the third quarter of next year. The plant’s specific location is to be announced in the coming weeks.

The news was announced at the U.S.-China Green Tech Summit in Shanghai, a two-day event addressing energy efficiency and carbon neutral energy sources. The photovoltaic module manufacturer said it picked Arizona because of research coming out of Arizona State University, statewide renewable energy policies, and a supportive local business climate.

The 80,000- to 100,000-square-foot plant is expected to reduce time, cost, and emissions associated with shipping Suntech’s panels.

Suntech is planning to initially hire more than 75 full-time employees and could double that within the year as the North American market develops, it said. The U.S. market had 356 MW of solar PV capacity installed in 2008, and that's expected to grow to more than 2 GW by 2012, said Suntech citing Photon Magazine and Solarbuzz.

"This is the first step in what I see as a long-term, strategic investment in the North American market,” said Suntech's Chairman and CEO Zhengrong Shi, in a news release.

Suntech designs and delivers commercial and utility scale solar power systems in China and the United States.

In September, Suntech completed and connected a 10 MW utility-scale solar power project to the grid in China (see Suntech launches 10 MW utility-scale solar project in China). 

Suntech already has a network of established U.S. solar dealers and integrators and is engaged with large-scale solar project developers serving the utility market.

It also has established partnerships with U.S. companies including MEMC (NYSE:WFR), Suntech's largest supplier of silicon wafers used in its modules. MEMC provides silicon wafers to the semiconductor and solar industries (see MEMC, Gintech amend solar supply deal and MEMC to develop solar plants with $200M SunEdison acquisition).

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory
• Two Israeli wastewater firms to locate in Michigan
• Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis
• A quest for CO2 and O2 optimal management with biofuel from algae

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed