New partnership to create jobs for Ontario auto parts manufacturer

TORONTO, Ont. – SunEdison has teamed up with Samco Solar, a division of Samco Machinery Ltd., a Scarborough, Ont.-based equipment and parts manufacturer, to produce racking equipment for its Canadian solar projects. The partnership is expected to result in the creation of more than 100 green jobs in the province.

Since 2008, Samco has experienced a 63 percent decline in their automotive sales, which resulted in a 37 percent decline in their workforce. This new contract with SunEdison will create a 25 percent increase in Samco’s labour force, generating 15 to 18 permanent and highly skilled jobs. The balance of the new jobs will stem from the construction of SunEdison’s commercial rooftop projects.

Retooling of the Samco plant has already begun. Using SunEdison’s proprietary design, which has been deployed globally on more than 300 rooftops, the first solar racking is expected to come off the line in September 2010. SunEdison also foresees exporting the solar racking equipment to the U.S market.

"We’ve been very pleased with the manufacturing expertise in the province as demonstrated by Samco," said Jason Gray, vice-president, Canada, for SunEdison. "Production of the racking is extremely cost competitive here in Ontario, enabling us to produce product for U.S. export."

The initiative will enable SunEdison to meet or exceed the domestic content requirements for its commercial rooftop solar PV projects as outlined in Ontario’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program, which will require 60 percent of solar equipment used in its projects to be produced locally by 2011.