Search sponsor
Search sponsor
The state of Ohio loves solar and renewable energy manufacturing and has recently put its development money where its mouth is in support of several up-and-coming PV players in the state.
First Solar's Ohio connection usually gets the most attention, since the thin-film PV leader's roots in the area go back to Solar Cells Inc. and Glasstech Solar before that. First's recent decision to spend millions of dollars to expand its only North American development and manufacturing site in Perrysburg helps solidify the region's role as a solar production player.
As a result of First's expansion, a supply-chain benefit goes to local glass manufacturer Pilkington, which will continue to do a fair amount of business supplying the TFPV company with its module glass.
Several grants and loans announced over the past two weeks show the state's commitment to other up-and-coming firms, proving First Solar is not the only PV game in town, er, the state.
The dollar dole-out comes courtesy of Ohio's Department of Development, which is directed by Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher (shown grinning above). Its Third Frontier Advanced Energy Awards program gave about $2.7 million of a total $9 million nut to three solar companies in three different parts of the state: Xunlight ($995,577), Tremco (a cool million dollars), and SCI Engineered Materials ($708,715).
Thin-film silicon purveyor Xunlight has benefitted from Ohio state funds before, earning $4.9 million earlier this year to help commercialize its manufacturing process and develop products as well as a $997,000 grant to develop its X26 business unit's flexible cadmium-telluride panel technology.
This time, the company that spun out of the University of Toledo's noted PV research lab garnered funds that are targeted on the development of specialized QA/QC characterization and measurement tools for TF solar materials and cells.
Xunlight also plays a role in the Tremco project, in which its TFPV modules will be integrated into roofing membranes and systems as part of Tremco's push for next-generation, commercial building-integrated PV systems. Tremco will get the panels first from Xunlight's 2-MW pilot line, then from its 25-MW roll-to-roll production line coming online in Q1 2009.
Keeping on the thin-film theme, SCI Engineered Materials will use the cash to develop its rotatable ceramic sputtering targets for the production of transparent conductive oxide-coated glass for thin-film and third-generation PV module development and production.
Another pair of Ohio grants for economic development will help CdTe-on-glass start-up Willard & Kelsey Solar Group ($500,000) and upgraded metallurgical-grade (UMG) silicon company Solsil (the firm, actually majority owned by Global Specialty Metals, gets $750,000) to buy machinery and equipment to fit out their manufacturing facilities that will eventually employ hundreds of Ohioans, including many refugees from the auto industry.
The stealthy WK Solar was also awarded a $5 million R&D investment loan by the agency, a five-year note carrying 1% interest the first year, and only 2% for the remaining four years. Those monies will also go toward the purchase of factory tools for its Perrysburg site.
So in a matter of days, the state's development group announced investments worth about $9 million for the local solar PV manufacturing infrastructure, not a bad early Christmas present during these Scrooge-like days of financial humbug.
(Blogger's note: The region's PV-fed renewal is getting national media attention too. Tonight's (Dec. 17) ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" broadcast carries a story about Toledo's makeover from Glass City to Solar Valley.)
