Export deal is sealed for solar
Sentinel-Tribune – More than 500 jobs will be supported at First Solar’s manufacturing plant in Perrysburg Township thanks to nearly $500 million in financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
The announcement was made at the plant Friday by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ex-Im Chairman Fred Hochberg.
“We know how to make things in Ohio,” said Brown, noting that the state ranks just third in manufacturing behind California and Texas.
“We know how to make big things,” he went on, explaining that automobiles and – more relevant to the solar power industry – glass are major drivers in the Toledo area.
To that end, manufacturing plays a vital part in job creation in the state, he said.
Ex-Im Bank is providing $455.7 million in two transactions to the company, with the monies to be focused at the Perrysburg facility on its exports to Canada. The move will support 550 jobs per year at the plant.
The exported photovoltaic panels are for a 50-megawatt solar project in the Canadian townships of Amberstburg, Belmont, and Walpole, and a 40-megawatt project in St. Chair.
Brown noted that currently 70 percent of clean energy systems are manufactured abroad, largely by Germany and China.
