Solar Energy & Detroit: Renewable Companies See Advantages in Auto-Industry's Pain

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http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/10/solar-energy-and-detroit-renewable-companies-see-advantages-in-auto-industrys-pain

In Michigan, a 320-acre Ford Motor Co. plant sits idle after 52 years of assembling Lincoln Continentals, Ford Thunderbirds and other vehicles. It's one of a series of U.S. assemblies that have closed or shrunk, with more than 435,000 automotive-manufacturing jobs disappearing since the beginning of the decade, according to a Congressional Research Service report released in August.

But behind some of the buildings' walls, a group of renewable-energy companies are working to transform the defunct assembly into a manufacturing park for equipment such as thin-film solar panels and energy-storage and power-management systems for solar- and wind-power systems. Xtreme Power, which makes the energy-storage and power-management systems, and Clairvoyant Energy, which develops thin-film solar production capacity using equipment from Oerlikon Solar, have agreed to buy the space from Ford — with the help of about $100 million in tax credits and funding from other government sources. (Image, left, shows the front view of the manufacturing park. Courtesy of Ford Motor Co.)

The assembly plant turns out to be ideal for thin-film manufacturing. For one thing, it's in a very convenient location near road, rail and numerous suppliers of key materials, such as glass, said Chris O’Brien, head of North American market development for Oerlikon. "One of the most important materials to a PV module is glass. A number of glass suppliers in the area who have historically been suppliers to the auto industry currently have excess capacity, so there are natural synergies there." The structure of the building also is well-suited to house thin-film manufacturing machinery, he added. "The plant is idle, available, in a region that has a skilled labor force that's experienced in manufacturing and some terrific facilities nearby."

The project has been cited as a poignant example of an attempt to replace some of the country's thousands of lost automobile-manufacturing jobs with green jobs. It's also one of the latest pieces of news highlighting the ability of some renewable-energy companies to benefit from the recession — and especially from the auto industry's pain.

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