The new facility will have an initial production capacity of 100 MW per year and is scheduled to begin initial operations in the third quarter of 2010.
A U.S.-based China manufacturing company specializing in products for customers in the solar energy, Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing USA, Inc. announced on August 9 the opening of the Company's 129,000-square-foot photovoltaic (PV) solar module production facility and R&D center in Nantong, China.
Nantong, located near the coast of the East China Sea, is about 120 miles north of Shanghai and is known as the economic hub of the Jiangsu Province.
Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing., headquartered in South San Francisco, California, is a 17-year-old engineering-oriented firm specializing in photovoltaic (PV) panel, mechanical, electronics and fiber optic products manufacturing.
"We are very excited about the opening of our Nantong facility, which will help us meet the growing demand for our high-quality solar modules. This new facility greatly increases our solar manufacturing capacity. We expect company ownership and lower operating costs at the new facility to improve margins for Worldwide," said Jimmy Wang, Worldwide's CEO.
The new facility will have an initial production capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) per year and is scheduled to begin initial operations in the third quarter of 2010 with 120 employees. The location is large enough to accommodate two building expansions that would bring the total manufacturing capacity to 300 MW per year.
Worldwide expects to increase its staff at the facility to 200 associates near the end of 2010. In addition to the manufacturing plant, the facility also houses an 11,000-square-foot research center for the continued development of the company's "Amerisolar" brand solar modules as well as complete PV solar energy systems.
According to solar market research and consulting firm Solarbuzz, the global PV industry generated $38.5 billion in revenues in 2009 and is expected to experience strong growth over the next few years. Solarbuzz forecasts that annual global PV sales could approach as much as $100 billion by 2014.