Oregon’s legislative session went out with a bang. Building on the renewagble energy standard passed earlier this summer that requires 25 percent of energy to come from renewables by 2025, this week Governor Ted Kulongoski signed key solar power policies that will continue to encourage solar manufacturing and solar energy systems in the state.

For starters, the tax credit for solar power projects jumped from 35 percent of project costs to 50 percent. A tax exemption passed for solar net metered systems, and a provision requiring public buildings to set aside 1.5 percent of their construction budget to fund onsite solar power technologies also made it through.

Jon Miller, executive director of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association, explained why solar power is good for Oregon:

It's another example of how we're growing manufacturing in the northwest. We're now a powerhouse in the United States in solar manufacturing. Oregon's established and educated semiconductor workforce makes it a natural fit for the solar PV industry.

Solar business is booming in Oregon. Indeed, two manufacturers (Germany-based SolarWorld AG and California-based Solaicx) have already committed to the state, and overall the solar industry is growing more than 30 percent annually. Oregon ranks 5th in the U.S. for solar hot water systems and in the top 10 for photovoltaic (PV) systems. By 2009, Oregon is expected to be the largest producer of PV cells in the U.S.

Renewable Energy Access

Photo Courtesy of Solaicx

Solaicx, a manufacturing company that produces high-efficiency silicon wafers for photovoltaic solar power, has announced a new facility planned for Portland, Oregon.

The 136,000-square-foot plant will produce silicon ingots, which are logs of pure silicon that get heated to high temperatures and sliced like lunch meat to make silicon wafers. The wafers are the semiconductor materials in solar panels. The process for producing and processing silicon wafers for solar power is difficult and expensive, but Solaicx claims it uses silicon more efficiently and thus creates a more cost-competitive product.

The plant will provide about 100 new green collar jobs and, by the time it reaches full capacity in 18 months, may produce enough material for 142 megawatts of solar panels.

Why Portland? The Oregon Department of Energy created a Solar Energy Working Group charged with developing and implementing a strategic plan to lure clean tech companies to Portland. Jeff Jones, Vice President of Manufacturing for Solaicx, said the state’s incentives were key in the company’s decision to locate there:

"We looked at the state of Oregon's generous financial incentives for renewable energy and Portland's deep base of skilled labor in silicon manufacturing, and decided that the port is an ideal place for our continued growth as a company. This welcoming atmosphere will allow us to meet our goals and rapidly ramp-up to full production by the end of 2008."

Although many manufacturing facilities are located in or are moving to China, precision manufacturing is expanding in the U.S., Japan, and Europe.

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Oregon Energy Model
Solaicx

Oregon has seen some exciting solar energy policies lately, like increasing its net metering laws to 2 megawatts (MW), proposed legislation for a renewable energy standard that includes provisions for community solar power, and a bill increasing the incentives for residential solar hot water and solar electric systems.

Now you can add “North America’s largest solar factory” to the state’s sunny solar outlook.

The German tech company SolarWorld AG is building a facility that will produce integrated solar silicon wafers (the primary component for the production of solar panels) and solar cells (the part that converts sunlight into electricity) in Hillsboro, OR.

SolarWorld will invest about $400 million to expand and develop the new facility over the next 2 years, which it acquired from the Japanese Komatsu Group. That company had already invested around $500 million in the facility but it never went into production because of weak demand in the chip industry. Oregon will support the investments by offering property and business energy tax credits.

A spokesman for the Oregon Department of Energy said the state is “absolutely committed to the long-term development of this [solar] industry.” Jon Miller, executive director of the Oregon Solar industry, noted that Oregon’s business-friendly climate for renewable energy industries made this significant development happen:

"This will provide Oregon with a very big economic boost and it highlights a vigorous effort by Oregon to attract businesses from the renewable energy industry. It's great news…to get another big renewable energy win for the Northwest."

SolarWorld currently has production facilities in nearby Vancouver, WA that employs about 100 people, all of whom will be offered jobs at the Hillsboro plant. The company employs 1,350 workers worldwide and expects the Hillsboro facility to employ up to another 1,000 people. The addition of this plant represents a significant expansion of their share of the U.S. solar energy market.

Photo courtesy of SolarWorld AG

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The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)