South Africa: SunPower to build solar panel facility

Nasdaq-listed SunPower Corporation, two-thirds owned by France’s Total, has announced plans to own and operate a solar panel manufacturing facility in Cape Town, capable of producing 160MW worth of panels each year. The plant is a big show of confidence for the sector, and is expected to create 150 local jobs. It will produce the company’s E20/440 solar panels, as well as housing its engineering, procurement and construction and operations and management offices. SunPower is a preferred bidder for three power projects; work on the 22MW Herbert and 11MW Greefspan power plants was completed in H1 2014