Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — SunPower Corp., the second-largest
U.S. solar manufacturer, plans to build a factory in South
Africa that will produce as much as 160 megawatts of panels
annually.
The facility also will include engineering and construction
operations, the San Jose, California-based company said today in
a statement. SunPower earlier this year completed two solar
farms with a total of 33 megawatts of capacity in the country’s
Northern Cape province.
“Our investment in this new plant is part of our
commitment to the local South African PV market,” Marty Neese,
SunPower’s chief operating officer, said in the statement.
South Africa may add as much as 600 megawatts of solar
capacity this year, more than triple last year’s total of 177
megawatts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy
Finance.
First Solar Inc. is the largest U.S. solar manufacturer by
market value.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Will Wade, Tony Barrett