U.S. solar manufacturing grows

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. capacity for manufacturing solar cells is expected to grow over the next few years.

There are a number of planned plants in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Texas, the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network News reported.

The latest plant, set to be built in Salem, Ore., was announced last month by Japan's Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. It will build a manufacturing plant for solar ingots and wafers which are used in putting together silicon solar cells.

The plant is expected to begin operating next October and will be able to produce 70 megawatts of solar wafers per year by April 2010.

In early October, First Solar Inc. broke ground on a planned expansion of its Perrysburg, Ohio, plant. The expansion will add enough capacity to produce an additional 57 megawatts per year of solar modules.