Mar 23, 2009 11:53 pm US/Pacific
Fremont Solar Co. Receives $535M Govt. Loan
FREMONT (CBS 5 / KCBS) ―
Solyndra, a solar-panel company in Fremont, received a $535 million loan from the federal government Friday which will finance a second factory that promises to create 1,000 new jobs at the plant and create an additional 3,000 jobs during construction.
The loan comes from the U.S. Department of Energy and represents the first disbursement of funds from the Energy Policy Act of 2005, according to the Mercury News.
The loan was officially approved by Energy Secretary Steven Chu who vowed to make it one of his top priorities to revamp and speed up the loan guarantee program, promising to cut the time it takes to review applications, many of which have been on file at the department for a year or more- Solyndra had applied for its loan in 2006.
Vice President of Operations Ben Bierman said the growth of green technology is one of the few bright spots in the economy.
From 2007 to 2008, Bierman says the market for solar panels grew by 50 percent, from $20 billion to $30 billion. He boasts that the company expects to double again by 2012.
"So what this loan means for us is that we will grow much more quickly than we may have otherwise," said Bierman.
The company said the government guarantee will cover debt financing for 73 percent of the cost for the second manufacturing plant.
In addition to creating construction and factory jobs, the company said that hundreds of more new jobs will likely be created at companies that will install the firm's panels.
Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman was excited to hear about the company's expansion and readily welcomed the good news as the city's unemployment rate continues to rise.
"We're obviously thrilled to see this come to Fremont. We, like everybody else, have been losing employment and losing companies and we've worked Solyndra since they've come here. They're a relatively new company, and just a tremendous success, and we want to help them with this to have it be an even greater success," said Wasserman.
The company says they hope to begin construction on the new plant before the end of the year.
According to the Mercury News, Solyndra assembles its solar panels using glass tubes filled with a thin film of non-silicon semiconductor material.
The company's panels are designed for commercial and industrial rooftops and have been in production since mid-2008.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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