TIPTON, Ind.—A year after President Barack Obama announced $400 million in federal loan guarantees to spur a solar panel manufacturer’s expansion, the company said its plans for production at an unfinished auto parts factory in central Indiana are on track.
The plant is expected to start production in 2013 and eventually employ 800 to 1,000 people.
Abound Solar took control of the sprawling 800,000-square-foot vacant factory near Tipton in December after the federal loan was approved and will start installing production equipment there in late 2012 or early 2013, Russell Kanjorski, vice president of marketing for Abound, told the Kokomo Tribune. Abound could start looking late this year for managers to oversee the Tipton start-up, Kanjorski said.
Meanwhile, the company has added production at its existing plant in Longmont, Colo.
The loan guarantee to Abound was among nearly $2 billion that Obama announced last July for new solar plants to increase the use of renewable energy sources.
Abound’s plans would give new life to what had been planned as a 1,400-worker factory making transmissions for Chrysler until German auto parts maker Getrag stopped construction in 2008.
Tipton County Commissioner Jane Harper said some businesses have shown “nibbles” of interest in the area around the site along U.S. 31 about 35 miles north of Indianapolis.
“Future investors are wary because they don’t want to put a bunch of money into something until they see the investors walking in the door,” she said.
Harper said a lack of climate control in the incomplete plant caused patches of mold on walls and a storm earlier this year caused minor damage. Crews have made those repairs and also cleared debris that Chrysler and Getrag left when they abandoned the building.
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Information from: Kokomo Tribune,
