CentroSolar America confirms Gresham plant

Enlarge Image

The chief executive of CentroSolar America Inc. confirmed Monday that the company is planning to build a manufacturing plant in Gresham.

But Deep Chakraborty said the company, the U.S. subsidiary of Munich-based solar panel-maker CentroSolar Group AG, has only made “initial preparations.”

Key details such as the location of the plant, its size, the number of projected employees and the timing of the project remain confidential, Chakraborty said via e-mail from Germany, where he is traveling.

It’s likely the Gresham plant would only assemble the finished photovoltaic modules.

Some details of the company’s plans have already emerged.

The Oregon Department of Energy in October approved a $6.2 million loan to the company for a 100-megawatt capacity plant in Gresham.

That would make it a significantly smaller operation than the Hillsboro plant operated by another German panel-maker, SolarWorld AG, which hopes to reach 500 megawatts of capacity by next year.

CentroSolar’s U.S. operations are based in Scottsdale, Ariz., though Chakraborty works from the company’s offices in Pleasanton, Calif.

Until the Gresham plant is operating, the U.S. subsidiary will use CentroSolar’s European production capacity to supply panels for the U.S. market, Chakraborty said.

“We also see continued sales growth in North America and are expanding our organization in new regions — including Oregon — to prepare for U.S. production,” he said via e-mail.

News of the company’s plans broke Friday after the U.S. Department of Energy announced it received $4.7 million in federal tax credits for building a Gresham module plant.

A total of $2.3 billion in tax credits were announced for companies manufacturing clean energy technology, including more than $82 million for SolarWorld’s Hillsboro operations.

Munich-based Centrosolar Group AG generated more than $479 million in revenue and employed 809 full-time workers at the end of 2008, the most recent data available.