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The Week in Germany: Business, Technology and the Environment

January 25, 2008

Germany’s Schott Solar Selects New Mexico Site for New Solar Manufacturing Plant

Concentrated solar thermal power plants use mirrors to focus the sun's energy on a tube of special liquid, which then flows through a heat exchanger to create steam. Photo: US Department of Energy

Schott Solar, Inc., one of the largest solar technology companies in the world and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the German glass and optics giant Schott AG, announced that it will build a 200,000 square-foot manufacturing facility at Mesa del Sol, a mixed-use development in Albuquerque, New Mexico that includes a cluster of renewable energy firms.

The investors said that the plant will employ 350 people when it goes online in 2009. Long-term plans call for an expansion to an 800,000 square-foot facility with 1,500 employees, a total investment of $500 million that would make Schott the third largest employer in the state.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson said he lured the firm to the state with about $20 million in incentives and plans to ask the state legislature for an additional $8 million in infrastructure for the plant. “I am committed to making New Mexico a clean energy state”, said the Governor.

New Mexico’s current energy plan mandates that 20 percent of the energy consumed in the state come from renewable resources by 2020.

Schott’s announcement came on the heels of new data from US wind and solar power associations that show the industries experiencing a surge in growth. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, installed solar power capacity expanded by a record 314 megawatts last year, an increase of 125 percent over 2006.

With over 3,000 megawatts of large scale commercial solar energy plants planned for the southwest between 2009 and 2014, the industry is expected to expand at an even brisker pace in coming years.

The Schott plant will help supply components for these giant solar energy farms that will sell electricity to utilities. It will produce parts for photovoltaic panels, which convert the sun rays directly into electricity, and receivers for thermal solar collectors, which covert solar energy into heat to drive steam turbines.

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