SunPower CEO says to add U.S. solar jobs
Mon Oct 6, 2008 3:33pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - SunPower Corp (SPWRA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock
Buzz) will add jobs to it U.S. operations "immediately" because of the
eight-year extension in solar power tax credits passed by the government
last week, Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner said on Monday.
The company, the solar market leader in North America, is also considering
building a plant in United States to manufacture solar modules, Werner told
the Reuters Global Environment Summit.
"We at SunPower will be adding jobs immediately because of the (tax
credits)," he said.
The expansion would add hundreds of positions over the next 18 months to
SunPower's current U.S. workforce of about 3,000, he added.
The U.S. government last week extended billions of dollars in tax credits
for solar and other renewable sources of energy in its $700 billion
financial bailout plan. The bill included a generous eight-year continuation
of solar tax credits that the industry says will boost U.S. demand for
energy from the sun and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The measure gives businesses a 30 percent tax credit to offset the
development costs of solar and other clean energy projects and eliminated a
$2,000 cap on tax credits for residential solar systems.
The subsidies narrow the cost gap for solar power to compete with
electricity from dirtier, but cheaper, energy sources such as coal and other
fossil fuels.
Werner said the tax credits would help stimulate demand for large-scale
projects sought by utilities -- a segment that many industry analysts
believe is crucial to helping drive down the costs of the renewable energy
source.
Werner also said along with North America, the company's top markets for the
next 18 months would be Germany, Italy and Japan.
(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)
(Reporting by Matt Daily and Nichola Groom; Editing by Brian Moss, Brad
Dorfman) |
