President Barack Obama recently announced that the Department of Energy would award $2 billion in conditional commitments from the Recovery Act to Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing projects.
Projects from both companies will create more 3,000 jobs throughout the U.S. and bring America to the forefront of the clean energy race, President Obama said during his recent Weekly Address.
According to a press release from The White House, with the money given from the Recovery Act, Abengoa Solar will build “one of the largest solar plants in the world” in Arizona.
The plant, called Solana, 70 percent of the construction components and products used in the construction of the plant will be manufactured here in America. Abengoa claims that by using America parts, it will contribute over $1.1 billion back in the economy.
Not only will the plant create clean energy for the state, but Kate Maracas, vice president of Abengoa Solar, said the project would create thousands of jobs for Americans as well.
“The building of Solana will also create between 1,600-1,700 new construction jobs, and operation of the plant will add another 85 permanent jobs,” Maracas said.
Once completed, the 250-net-megawatt plant will provide enough clean energy to power 70,000 homes. The company said that the project will avoid emitting over 475,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Abengoa will begin construction of the Solana plant will begin in the fall of 2010 and it should be operational in mid-2013.
“After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it’s good news that we’ve attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs here in America,” said President Obama.
Abound Solar Manufacturing, who manufactures cadmium telluride, thin-film photovoltaic solar modules, will build two plants within the U.S., one in Colorado and the other in Indiana, formally a Chrysler plant.
Abound’s project will create 2,000 jobs jobs during the construction phase and another 1,500 permanent manufacturing and technical jobs once the plants are operational.
The Colorado-based company will receive a $400 million, seven-year loan guarantee to expand its solar module manufacturing capabilities.
“The DOE loan guarantee program is essential to helping companies like Abound Solar scale-up innovations in photovoltaic manufacturing that are critical to reducing the cost of alternative energy,” said Tom Tiller, president Abound Solar.
According to Abound, once the two plants are up and running, they will be able to produce more than 840 megawatts of solar modules annually and “millions of solar panels each year.” The company says its plants will be fully operational in 2013.
President Obama said that his Administration and The Recovery Act are not done with investing in clean energy projects. Overall, The Recovery Act will invest more than $90 billion in clean energy, which by 2012, are projected to create more than 700,000 clean energy jobs.
“These are just two of the many clean energy investments in the Recovery Act. Already, I’ve seen the payoff from these investments,” said President Obama during his address. “I’ve seen once-shuttered factories humming with new workers who are building solar panels and wind turbines; rolling up their sleeves to help America win the race for the clean energy economy.”