SANYO North America Corp., a subsidiary of and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., based in San Diego, announced the opening of its newest manufacturing plant for photovoltaic products in Salem Oregon.

Production at SANYO Solar of Oregon LLC has begun. The plant will be producing silicon ingots and wafers, core materials to manufacture SANYO's HIT (Heterjunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar cells and modules. The plant plans to reach its full production capacity of 70-Megawatts annually by April 2010.

"With increasing awareness of the environment, more attention is focused on solar power, an area of strength for SANYO, as we are an industry leader with our HIT solar panels," said Mitsuru Homma, Executive Vice President, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. "Our plant here in Salem will be key to making the materials needed to make finished solar modules, which will be installed to help create a more sustainable LEED system as a part of a home or business here in the U.S. and for SANYO customers around the world."

SANYO is augmenting its facilities to reach goals set for an annual global production capacity of at least 600 MW by FY 2010.

SANYO first started researching and developing amorphous solar cells in 1975. In 1997, SANYO started mass production and sales of its world-leading conversion efficiency HIT solar cells. The company currently manufactures a large portion of silicon ingot and wafers in the U.S., the solar cells are made in Japan, with module assembly plants located in Mexico, Hungary and Japan.