President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo inaugurated yesterday the multibillion-peso solar panel factory of SunPower Corporation located in Tanauan City, Batangas.

SunPower is a high-efficiency designer, manufacturer and marketer of high-performance solar electric technology. The company has invested 27billion pesos for this venture and is currently employing 1,000 workers.

SunPower President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Werner thanks president Arroyo's support for the company especially when it first opened its business here four years ago. The company started at the Laguna Techno-Park in Sta. Rosa City in July 2003. Werner revealed in his speech that when he came to the Philippines in June 2003, he had only five employees but had the support of the President. Presently,the company has made 54 million solar cells and made a total of US$500 million by November 2005 alone.

Werner sited SunPower's Filipino employees as the best employees in the world for their dedication, smart and hardworking. SunPower says its successful Philippine experience will be "replicated in its other plants worldwide," with the battle cry: "Smarter solar power from the Philippines to the rest of the world!"

The occasion was also graced with the presence of outgoing Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla and SunPower officials, including Werner and Site Director Rob Vinje.