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Oh the irony, it burns — once more. With their business-friendly insurance policies, politically conservative US states have turn out to be sought-after places for brand spanking new factories that churn out EV batteries and different decarbonization applied sciences. The most recent information entails the US photo voltaic cell innovator First Photo voltaic, which has tapped Alabama and Louisiana to ramp up manufacturing of versatile, light-weight, skinny movie photo voltaic modules.
Pink States Love Skinny Movie Photo voltaic Know-how
First Photo voltaic is within the information this week as a result of the agency has simply introduced the opening of the brand new Jim Nolan Middle for Photo voltaic Innovation, an elaborate new skinny movie R&D middle in Lake Township, Ohio. The brand new facility is known as after former First Photo voltaic board of administrators member James F. Nolan, who’s credited with growing the corporate’s signature cadmium telluride method.
Buried far down in a First Photo voltaic press launch asserting the brand new Jim Nolan Middle is a reminder that the corporate is constructing two new factories within the politically crimson states of Alabama and Louisiana, as a part of a plan to scale as much as a complete of 14 gigawatts in capability for its US operations. The Alabama facility will go surfing any day now, and the Louisiana facility will comply with in 2025.
When renewable power lastly knocks fossil fuels right down to a distinct segment place within the US power panorama, Louisiana and Alabama will deserve a lot of the credit score. Light-weight, versatile skinny movie photo voltaic know-how will assist maintain the price of solar energy ratcheting down, and it may be utilized to many surfaces which might be unavailable to standard silicon photo voltaic panels.
The problem for skinny movie know-how was to get the photo voltaic conversion effectivity of skinny movie photo voltaic cells as much as a commercially aggressive degree with silicon. Having handed that milestone, First Photo voltaic is already seeking to new improved iterations sooner or later. The Jim Nolan Middle options a sophisticated manufacturing setup that may allow First Photo voltaic to hurry up the lab-to-production cycle for brand spanking new photo voltaic cell platforms, together with tandem varieties in addition to skinny movie photo voltaic modules.
Investing Public {Dollars} To Appeal to Skinny Movie Photo voltaic Factories
CleanTechnica’s Steve Hanley caught up with the Alabama enterprise again in 2022, when First Photo voltaic introduced that it chosen a web site within the northern a part of the state to construct its fourth US photo voltaic module manufacturing facility.
There being no such factor as a free lunch, public officers in Alabama needed to pony up with a purpose to win the First Photo voltaic deal. The corporate was reportedly contemplating about 100 different places primarily within the Southeast, in accordance with an article in The Moulton Advertiser dated November 30, 2022.
Advertiser reporter Michael Wetzel notes that the Alabama deal consists of property tax waivers of roughly $2.5 million per 12 months for 20 years, amongst different incentives. The state’s AIDT industrial improvement coaching program can also be lending a hand with worker recruitment and coaching.
Apparently, whoever signed off on the First Photo voltaic deal didn’t get the memo about not participating with ESG-related ventures. Alabama is one in every of two dozen states within the US the place the governor, the legislature, and/or different state officers have aligned in opposition to ESG (surroundings, social, governance) investing rules.
The anti-ESG marketing campaign is aimed toward defending fossil power, amongst different chosen industries. Nevertheless, public officers in anti-ESG states are usually not shy about investing tens of millions of taxpayer {dollars} to draw new manufacturing ventures that goal to place fossil gasoline stakeholders out of enterprise. Go determine! Inexperienced metal, lengthy length power storage programs, electrical automobiles, and superior warmth pumps are among the examples.
In the meantime, Over In Louisiana…
The brand new Louisiana manufacturing facility additionally illustrates a disconnect between excessive profile public officers throughout the similar state. First Photo voltaic formally broke floor on the $1.1 billion facility in Iberia Parish on September 21 final 12 months, with a hearty welcome from then-Governor and renewable power fan John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. The undertaking took form at the same time as former State Legal professional Basic Jeff Landry was making a reputation for himself among the many anti-ESG set. That included signing the state on to a multi-state letter excoriating the excessive powered funding administration agency BlackRock over its decarbonization coverage in 2022, and launching an investigation into the Local weather Motion 100+ enterprise group in 2023 (for the report, Alabama Legal professional Basic Steve Marshall additionally signed the BlackRock letter in 2022).
Landry assumed the governor’s workplace this 12 months and shortly made the many of the alternative. “Republican Jeff Landry, who has labeled climate change ‘a hoax’, has elevated fossil fuel executives to key environmental posts,” famous The Guardian on February 14.
“Under Republican leadership, Louisiana has joined the red state battle against environmental, social and governance policies,” noticed the information group Bond Purchaser on June 20.
Be that as it might, Landry is caught with the brand new coal-killing skinny movie photo voltaic manufacturing facility. Final summer time, when Edwards was nonetheless in workplace, the Louisiana Financial Improvement company famous that the state invested fairly a hefty sum of taxpayer {dollars} to draw First Photo voltaic. “To secure the project in Iberia Parish, the state of Louisiana offered First Solar a competitive incentives package that includes the comprehensive workforce solutions of LED FastStart,” the company famous.
That was only for starters. “Additional incentives include performance-based grants for site development and infrastructure improvements totaling $30 million,” LED added. Iberia Parish can also be chipping in with infrastructure enhancements for the location, together with water and wastewater programs.
Extra & Higher Photo voltaic Cells, Made In The USA
Circling again round to the Jim Nolan Middle, it’s noteworthy that Ohio additionally joined the anti-ESG marketing campaign in 2022, when Legal professional Basic Dave Yost signed the state onto the identical BlackRock letter as Louisiana and Alabama. Now the state is celebrating a brand new facility that may assist push fossil power again underground.
First Photo voltaic additionally plans to deploy the sources on the Jim Nolan Middle to develop new tandem photo voltaic cells, which deploy two sorts of photo voltaic supplies to chop prices whereas boosting photo voltaic conversion effectivity. Perovskite might be within the combine, following the corporate’s acquisition of the Swedish skinny movie perovskite specialist Evlolar final 12 months.
“With this acquisition, along with our new innovation center in the United States and longstanding commitment to R&D, we are investing not just in First Solar’s future, but the future of solar energy,” defined Mark Widmar, First Photo voltaic CEO, in a press assertion marking the Evolar acquisition.
“We anticipate that high efficiency tandem PV modules will define the future, speeding up decarbonization by allowing us to convert sunlight into clean electricity more efficiently,” he emphasised.
With the Republican Get together’s now-notorious Venture 2025 plan for a second Trump time period in workplace looming overhead, it stays to be seen if Widmar’s optimistic outlook stays in power after Election Day 2024. Nevertheless, that’s as much as the voting public.
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Picture (screenshot): First Photo voltaic is increasing its plans for a skinny movie photo voltaic revolution within the US, and that’s placing conservative politicians in crimson states on the spot (pictured right here, a utility scale photo voltaic array in Australia courtesy of First Photo voltaic).
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