Suntech Starts Shanghai Solar Factory

Suntech has announced that they will be building a new thin film plant in China. The company will be undertaking both R&D and manufacturing at the facility, which should begin operation next year. In 2009 it is hoped that they will produce solar cells with a combined capacity of 50MW.

Suntech is a big player in the building integrated photovoltaic products (BIPV), partly because of their acquisition of the MSK Corporation. Suntech was founded by Dr. Shi, a senior research scientist and the leader of the Thin Film Solar Cells Research Group in the Centre of Excellence for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"While BIPV is currently a relatively small segment of the overall solar market, it is one which we expect will grow rapidly in the coming years. Low projected production costs, which are projected to continue to fall from a very low base, when combined with growing residential and commercial demand for our leading BIPV solutions will help make our products very competitive in this space." :: Suntech