Sanyo Energy continues to strengthen its presence in the North American solar market with the opening of its new solar module assembly facility in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Located in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, the plant will be assembling Sanyo’s patented heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer (H.I.T.) solar modules.

Sanyo’s H.I.T. solar cells are composed of a single thin crystalline silicon wafer sandwiched between ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers. The company claims that the solar cells have the world’s highest solar light to electric energy conversion efficiency at 23 percent per installed square foot.

The Monterrey plant will have the capacity to produce 50 megawatts of solar panels annually, with the assembled panels to be used in solar installations in the United States and Canada.

“Our Monterrey plant was actually our first overseas module assembly facility in our solar business,” remarked Mitsuru Homma, executive vice president and member of the board of Sanyo Electric Company Limited, Sanyo Energy’s parent company.

He added that the Monterrey plant is a significant factor to the growth in sales of its H.I.T. solar cells in North America.

Sanyo currently manufactures its silicon ingot and wafers in the United States, and solar cells in Japan. The company also has module assembly plants located in Mexico, Hungary and Japan.

The company has plans to construct new facilities to meet growing demand for solar energy. Sanyo aims to have an annual global production capacity of at least 600 MW by 2010.

Sanyo was the first company to commercialize amorphous-type solar cell production in 1980. It began mass production and sales of its H.I.T. solar cells in 1997. The company’s North American headquarters is located in San Diego, California.

-   Natassia Y. Laforteza