Goodyear will house a new factory for Chinese solar-panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co., which development officials said Wednesday paves the way for more factories and raises hope for a more diversified Arizona job market.

At least 54 renewable-energy companies are looking at the region for possible factory sites, said Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, which helped lure Suntech to the state.

He said he is hopeful Arizona sees at least three more factory announcements before April and at least six for the year, which would help the state recover from the current recession and housing crisis.

Renewable-energy-component factories could offer Arizona an alternative to the construction industry that historically drives the job market, Broome said.

Among the attractions that brought Suntech to Arizona were tax breaks passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor last year. Those incentives offer renewable-energy equipment factories income-tax credits and lower property taxes based on how much they invest in their factories and what they pay their workers.

Some of the new companies scoping out factory sites are suppliers for Suntech and Tower Automotive, a Michigan company that recently announced plans for a $50 million solar-component factory in the area, Broome said.

Suntech will spend $10 million to $15 million setting up an assembly factory for solar panels in an existing building in Goodyear that it will lease, officials said.

The factory initially will employ 75 people and turn out enough solar panels a year to power about 7,500 houses at once. Officials want to expand the plant over time to four times that capacity, employing 250 people.

The Arizona Suntech factory should be in production by September, allowing the company to serve the Southwest with panels made in the U.S., said Steven Chan, chief strategy officer.

Chan said Suntech will strive to match the cost efficiencies of its factories in China because while customers want a domestically produced product, price is more important to U.S. consumers.

The new factory will be a small part of the company's operations and not process silicon wafers into silicon solar cells, as Suntech does in China. Workers will assemble the premade cells with glass and frames into the panels used on roofs and in large fields for power plants.

In 2008, Suntech's existing factories produced 498 megawatts of solar panels, most of which were sold to Europe.

The Arizona facility will have an initial capacity of 30 megawatts, with 120 megawatts of capacity if and when it expands. One megawatt of power capacity is enough to supply about 250 homes at once.

Source: AZCentral