Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd.(NYSE: STP), the world's largest producer of solar panels, has announced that its Goodyear, Arizona manufacturing plant has been selected by Arizona Business Magazine and BestCompaniesAZ as one of 40 winners for the 2012 Arizona's Most Admired Companies Awards (MAC). All 40 winners were recognized at an awards reception in Phoenix and are featured in the September/October issue of AZ Business Magazine.
Arizona's Most Admired Companies are selected based on how a company has performed in the following areas: Workplace Culture, Leadership Excellence, Corporate and Social Responsibility and Customer Opinion.
"This is the most comprehensive and most prestigious corporate awards program in Arizona. It recognizes the contributions and impact these 'most admired companies' bring to the state," said Denise Gredler, Founder & CEO of BestCompaniesAZ and co-founder of the MAC program.
"We are honored that our Goodyear facility has been recognized as one of the best places to work in Arizona," said Jerry Liu, General Manager of Suntech Arizona. "We are able to attract incredible talent because we have a commitment to the growth, well-being, and satisfaction of our employees. More than anything, it's our people that differentiate Suntech in a highly-competitive PV manufacturing industry."
Suntech's Goodyear, Arizona facility was opened in October 2010. The 117,000 square foot facility features highly automated manufacturing and product testing equipment and currently produces Suntech's 290W multicrystalline silicon solar panels for commercial and utility-scale electricity generation. Solar panels produced at Suntech's Goodyear facility are compliant for procurement in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Buy American Act projects.
Suntech's Goodyear operation has steadily increased its workforce, adding a second shift in January 2011 and a third shift in May 2011. The state-of-the-art module manufacturing facility runs twenty-four hours per day with more than 100 skilled employees, approximately 75 percent of whom were hired out of unemployment, showing the solar industry's ability to create jobs. The facility's annualized production throughput is nearly 50MW, representing about 15,000 high-quality solar panels per month, or enough to power about 6,000 homes.