SANTA FE (AP) — A German company will open a plant in Albuquerque to manufacture solar energy equipment.
Schott AG of Mainz, Germany will break ground next month on the plant, which is expected to open in early 2009 and will initially employ about 350 people. That figure could eventually expand to 1,500 jobs.
''When we land companies like Schott, this is a home run for the state,'' Gov. Bill Richardson said Monday at a news conference.
Company executives attended the announcement along with Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who represents the Albuquerque area.
The plant will make solar panels, which convert solar energy into electricity, as well as receivers used in utility-scale concentrated solar thermal plants. The mirrors focus the sun's rays onto the receivers, which warm fluid that goes to a heat exchanger to produce steam for turbines to generate electricity.
The manufacturing plant will be located at Mesa Del Sol, a commercial and residential development south of the Albuquerque International Sunport.
''In one's year time we will have transformed the desert in Mesa Del Sol into one of the leading solar energy technology production sites in the country,'' said Udo Ungeheuer, chairman of the company board of management.
The company will qualify for a number of financial incentives, including job training funds and a state tax credit for employers creating high-wage jobs.
Richardson said he will ask the state legislature to allocate $8 million in capital improvement financing for infrastructure for the solar manufacturing facility. The money will be part of the governor's capital outlay recommendations to the state legislature, which convenes on Tuesday. Richardson said more capital financing would be sought in 2009.
Schott will initially invest $100 million in the plant, a company official said. By 2012, the plant should employ about 700 workers.
Schott is a leading manufacturer of solar technology equipment but it also makes a wide range of other products, ranging from glass used in oven doors, fiber optics and syringes. The company has operations in 41 countries, employs 17,000 people and has global sales of about $3 billion.
