Sola Cell Maker Expands Manufacturing Plant in RP

(alternat1ve.com/biofuel) - Sunpower Corporation, majority owned by Cypress Semiconductor, announced that they are expanding their solar cell manufacturing plant in the Philippines (SunPower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd). About Php 27 B ($562M) is being allocated for the expansion that will increase plant capacity to 400MW. An estimated 2000 jobs will be created by the expansion.

The existing plant in the Philippines is responsible for the production of the A300 model Solar Cell of the company. The expansion was brought about by a positive forecast for the succeeding years profits which is expected to triple that of 2006 due to an increased demand for Solar Power equipment.

A brief history of the company from their site:

SunPower solar technology was developed by Dr. Richard Swanson and his students while he was Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Financial support for Dr. Swanson's early research was provided in part by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). In 1985 Dr. Swanson founded SunPower Corporation to commercialize high-efficiency photovoltaic cell technology for use in solar concentrators.