US solar photovoltaic company SolFocus opens expanded manufacturing factory in Mesa, Arizona

24 April 2009

US Solar photovoltaic systems developer SolFocus has completed its expanded solar glass reflector manufacturing factory in Mesa, Arizona, in the US. The new facility will have the capacity to produce 2 million concentrating reflectors annually for 30MW of solar power generation.

As an advanced energy technology producer, SolFocus plans to utilise the 30 percent manufacturing investment tax credit, as set forth in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). From a demand perspective, ARRA provides the municipality of Mesa access to funds for investment in innovative solar energy generation technology, which will create even more jobs and economic benefit to the city, the company said.

‘Mesa is an example of a town poised to become the living and breathing paradigm of a vibrant green economy,’ said Jason Ellsworth, vice president and general manager of the SolFocus Glassworks facility. ‘In addition to providing green collar jobs in the factory, Mesa is positioned to create additional long-term, high-skilled jobs, through the deployment, operation and maintenance of solar installations, which is expected to create approximately 80-90 working man-years for each megawatt of solar energy put into operation.’

The company’s, convex mirrors manufactured at the facility serve as a component within the SolFocus CPV system design.

‘The 30 MW of product enabled by this factory will allow us to meet the rising demand for CPV technology,” said Mark Crowley, president and chief executive officer of SolFocus. ‘Government bodies, utilities and large scale commercial operations are quickly recognising that CPV can deliver three times the efficiency of traditional solar systems with lower land use. With more than $150bn of stimulus money available for clean energy projects worldwide, competition for available product supply will be tight, so the time to act is now.’

The expanded factory will open immediately with full production expected in the second half of 2009, the company said.

SolFocus is headquartered in California, with European operations headquartered in Madrid, Spain, and manufacturing in Mesa, as well as manufacturing partners in India and China.

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Tags: solar

This story was published on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under North America, companies, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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