Hillboro, Ore. will be home to the largest solar factory in North America. SolarWorld AG will establish an integrated solar silicon wafer and solar cell production operation which will reach a capacity of 500 MW by 2009.
SolarWorld took over the silicon wafer production facility of the Japanese Komatsu Group whose operation was located in Hillsboro but had never gone into production due to low chip demand.
The State of Oregon is supporting these investment with funds from its Anti-Global-Warming-Program.
'The new U.S. production will be designed in line with the latest results of our ongoing inter-group research work," explained Boris Klebensberger, COO of SolarWorld AG.
In the new wafer and cell factory the group will produce highly efficient, mono-crystalline solar silicon products thus expanding its technological spectrum, according to a company statement.
