SunPower to spend P27B for expansion program

BIÑAN, Laguna – Solar cell maker SunPower Philippines Manufacturing Ltd. will invest about P27 billion for its expansion program this year until 2008, a company official said yesterday.

In a press briefing here, SunPower vice president for manufacturing Greg Reichow said the investment would allow them to expand their existing 110 megawatt (MW) solar wafer plant to 400 MW.

Reichow said the new plant, now under construction inside the First Philippines Industrial Park in Batangas, will be completed by July this year. 

The project will generate as much as 2,000 new jobs by 2008.

The investment for the second plant is much higher than the P8.8 billion poured in for the Phase I project in Laguna Technopark in Biñan, Laguna.

The SunPower plant in the Laguna Techno Park is designed to produce the company’s A300 cell, which it describes as "a clean, efficient and world-class power source." It is the first semiconductor wafer fab in the Philippines.

The A300 is a 125-millimeter, single-crystal cell that generates three watts of electricity and provides low-cost silicon solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 21.5 percent.

Citing the success of its operation in the Philippines, he said SunPower is likely to expand its capacity further in the near-term.

By 2009, it is looking at the possibility of putting up another 450 MW plant in a location to be determined yet.

"We’re still looking at possible site (for the third plant)," Reichow said.

Banking on the bright prospects of the semiconductor business in the country, SunPower projects its sales revenues to triple to $650 million this year from 2006’s $240 million.

Reichow attributed the optimistic revenue projection to anticipated higher worldwide demand and the opening of the new facility.

To date, SunPower has a market capitalization of $4.3 billion and is one of the world’s top 10 solar companies in terms of revenues. SunPower is an affiliate of US technology firm Cypress Semiconductor.