Newsclip

State lands solar-panel factory
Hiring of up to 375 to be largest job gain under Patrick so far
Boston Globe
By Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff  |  April 18, 2007

MARLBOROUGH -- Governor Deval L. Patrick got the opportunity to show his commitment to business and the environment yesterday, when the state revealed it had bested bids from North Carolina to Mexico to build a solar-panel factory that will create as many as 375 jobs.

The $150 million plant, to be built by Evergreen Solar Inc. in nearby Westborough, will receive more than $44 million in state and private grants and loans. Patrick disclosed the winning bid yesterday with Evergreen chief executive Richard M. Feldt and NStar senior vice president Joseph Nolan , who said the electric utility will begin working with Evergreen to help it target customers willing to buy and install solar panels.

"The message to the state and the nation is clear," Patrick said. "We want Massachusetts to be the home of clean energy technology."

The planned expansion represents the biggest batch of jobs created under Patrick and will more than double the number of Evergreen employees in Massachusetts. The Marlborough company was founded in 1994 with venture capital money and has yet to become profitable. Yesterday, Evergreen reported that it had narrowed its losses to $6.2 million in the first quarter on increased sales.

"When we began this process, I thought we would end up someplace else," Feldt said of the expansion plan. "Making solar a priority [in Massachusetts] was a tipping point in our decision to be here."

Evergreen founder Mark A. Farber first sought out Patrick last year, when Patrick was a candidate for governor. The two met at a election fundraiser in Boston hosted by a "green" architectural firm. Farber said he told Patrick the company was planning to build a plant in Germany because the market for solar panels there is strong. The fact that the domestic market wasn't as strong seemed to bother Patrick, Farber said.

Patrick toured the Marlborough facility on the campaign trail last fall and met privately with Farber, Feldt, and Congressman Jim McGovern, Democrat of Worcester. Farber said no one in former governor Mitt Romney's administration had shown a similar "receptiveness." State officials met with executives again after Patrick's election.

"This governor gets the story," Farber said. "It's about clean energy and local jobs."

The new factory will be built on state-owned land adjacent to the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a state development agency that promotes renewable energy.

The state's Office of Business Development put together a $44 million financing package to entice Evergreen. Included in the package is $13.5 million in grants from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable Energy Trust, the state's Workforce Training Fund, and other grant sources, as well as $17.5 million in loans from MassDevelopment, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and Citizens Bank.

Citizens will loan the company $7.5 million for the project through a low interest loan program it began in 2005 to help bring jobs to the state. The loan is the largest the bank has offered to a company in Massachusetts to date, said Robert E. Smyth, chief executive of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts.

State officials said Massachusetts package beat bids from Oregon, New York, North Carolina and other states, as well as Mexico who wanted the facility.

Evergreen CEO Feldt said he was persuaded in part by the governor's commitment to the clean energy industry. Patrick and state officials have agreed to increase the state's capacity to generate solar power from its estimated 2 megawatt production to 250 megawatts by the year 2017. One megawatt would light up about 1,000 homes.

State officials said yesterday they plan to install solar paneling totaling one megawatt of energy at several higher education institutions and correctional facilities this year.

Sue Reid , staff attorney for the environmental advocacy group the Conservation Law Foundation, called the plan ambitious and "at the forefront" of the clean energy movement. The state of California also recently agreed to try to create 3,000 megawatts of clean power by 2017.

"There are always initial infrastructure costs, but you recover that savings over time," she said of the Massachusetts investment. "With solar, it just takes longer to pay off."