SunPower Inaugurates Automated Solar Panel Manufacturing Plant

SunPower Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of the world's highest efficiency, commercially available solar cells and solar panels, today inaugurated its advanced, automated solar panel manufacturing plant, located in the Philippines near to the company's SPML solar cell factory.

SunPower expects to produce up to 30 MW (megawatts) of solar panels per year from its first manufacturing line in the new plant. The production facility has sufficient space to expand capacity to 90 MW per year.

SunPower's new automated line was designed to capitalize on the inherent cost advantages of its all-back contact cell architecture. Unlike conventional solar cells that require a complicated and expensive process to "weave" conducting metallic ribbons between the front surface of one cell and the back of the adjacent cell, SunPower's high-efficiency, all-back contact solar cells can be easily interconnected in a single plane with simple metal tabs. This process also allows the reflective metal elements to remain completely hidden from view, greatly improving the aesthetic appearance of the finished solar panel.

"SunPower's new solar panel manufacturing process is more highly automated than the industry standard and incorporates novel processes enabled by our unique cell architecture," said PM Pai, COO of SunPower Corporation.

"The advancements to panel manufacturing that we will bring into production this quarter are a key element of our overall product cost reduction roadmap. After we have proven this manufacturing technology here in the Philippines, we may consider locating similar plants close to our end-markets, thereby squeezing out more costs by lowering supply chain expenses."