Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

SunPower to open Mexican plant

American module and system manufacturer SunPower has announced that it will open a new plant in Mexico. It will produce the SunPower E18, E19 and E20 modules and the SunPower T5 Solar Roof Tile system.

15 MW of SunPower trackers and moduels will be supplied to Mahrindra in a new deal. Image: flickr/pge.

The plant will be located in Mexicali, close to the U.S. border and inland from the border city of Tijuana. An existing 320,000 square foot building will be leased by SunPower for the facility.

"Establishing our own manufacturing facility in Mexicali means we will be positioned to quickly deliver our high-efficiency, high-reliability solar products to a growing North American solar market," SunPower's CEO Marty Neese said when announcing the new plant. SunPower recently ramped up its manufacturing in Malaysia, has a fab in Silicon Valley, California and also a panel facility in Europe.

SunPower has sufficient funds to pursue an expansion in manufacturing after recently selling 60 percent of its stock to French oil giant Total. As part of the deal SunPower has access to a $1 billion line of credit.

Last week SunPower announced that it has signed a deal to supply modules and Sunpower T0 Trackers to Mahrindra for power plants in India. The total deal is worth 15 megawatts (MW).