SunPower: Made in the U.S.A.?

By Ucilia Wang

SunPower (SPWRA) plans to build a panel assembly plant in the United States by the end of 2010, said CEO Tom Werner.

Werner told the Reuters that the company is applying for federal dollars to help fund the factory construction, but he didn't want to say how much. SunPower might end up producing a quarter of its panels at the U.S. factory, he added.

Why? Building regional assembly plants cuts down transportation costs. Several states---Oregon, Arizona, etc.--also offer tremendous tax breaks. Roger Little, CEO of Spire, advocates a "50 Plants for 50 States" model.

SunPower has previously discussed building factories in the United States. The company mentioned the plan when it announced it had hired Jabil Circuit of St. Petersburg, Fla., to assemble SunPower's solar cells into panels in Jabil's plant in Mexico.

The company said the move would shave its expenses and allow it to better serve the North American market. The United States is the company's biggest market.

SunPower has its own cell and panel assembly plants in the Philippines, and is building a cell factory in Malaysia.

Many of SunPower's European and Asian competitors have set up factories in the United States, including Sanyo, SolarWorld, Schott Solar and Sharp. Suntech Power (STP) plans to set up a panel assembly plant, reportedly in Arizona.

Comments

[Zenfar:]

It is not just where things are made, but where they are designed as well. Most would consider Apple an American company, but are all of there products "Made in the USA", no of course not. Still I would think that it is important to have some manufacturing done in the country that you are selling too. Sunpower is in the US solar camp in my humble opinion.

Sep 14 09:35 AM

[Allie:]

Interesting, Zenfar... Toyota is a Japanese company with significant production in North America and Dell Computers is a North American company with significant production overseas...

Sep 14 11:30 AM

[biomedlives:]

As Allie implies, the notion of "American company" is due for a redefinition. I regard a company that has a high percentage of its high wage jobs in the U. S. as more "American" than one that has a lower percentage. Companies that are sending research, development, and manufacturing jobs overseas and keeping only sales, upper level executives, and the people who cut the grass at headquarters in the U. S. aren't especially American.

Sep 14 01:14 PM

[nmelendez:]

Well heck, look at McD's and GM. Their big profits are from Asia. McD's has a target of 10,000 "restaurants" in china in the short run. GM is gettting a 10% yoy growth in Asia. That's the way trade should really work. You interchange companies. Screw imports. Build it here, buy it here,

Sep 14 07:37 PM