Trina Solar’s new warehouse to serve growing U.S. market

Changzhou, China-based Trina Solar (NYSE:TSL) announced plans today to establish a warehouse operation in the Port of Oakland, Calif. The company didn’t specify how big the warehouse is or what kind of production capacity it would include.

Trina Solar manufactures solar photovoltaic products including monocrystalline and multicrystalline ingots, wafers and cells. It also assembles PV modules. The warehouse is expected to boost the company’s North America distribution network, allowing Trina Solar to respond faster to customer delivery requests, with service beginning this month.

"We view the outlook for PV installations in the United States as positive given the national promotion of a green economy to secure energy independence and create green jobs,” said Arturo Herrero, Trina Solar’s vice president of sales and marketing in a news release.

In April, Trina CEO Jifan Gao said the company’s sales in China are set to grow from about 2 megawatts in 2008 to 10 MW in 2009. In the same period, the company's production capacity is planned to expand from 201 MW to 400 MW of solar modules (see Trina CEO expects 10x growth in China solar market).

Looking three to five years out, growth of the Chinese market is even more pronounced, Jifan said. He expects China to account for 10 percent of the global PV market by then—up from less than 1 percent now.

Trina Solar also sells and markets its products in number of European countries, including Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium, where government incentives have accelerated the adoption of solar power (see Spain leads 2008 solar market and ET Solar to sell modules to Italy).

The U.S. market is also expected to follow similar growth patterns thanks to new government subsidies (see Solar takes stock after tax-credit battle). Jifan said he expects the United States to drive 15 percent of Trina's sales this year, up from less than 5 percent in 2008.