Michigan Catapaults Self Into Photo voltaic Trade Highlight

Join day by day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or observe us on Google Information!

For those who heard the sound of shade being thrown round earlier this week, that was in all probability the sound of shade being thrown by the state of Michigan. The state’s photo voltaic business has been considerably middling till now, however a brand new $900 million funding from the global-facing supplies agency Corning has simply shaken issues up. Michigan beat out different states within the Midwest and Northeast to win the brand new undertaking, and state officers have been joyful to credit score their expertise pool with tipping the stability.

Corning Provides The MI Photo voltaic Trade A Big Leg Up

The expertise pool angle is an attention-grabbing one however let’s get to that photo voltaic business shakeup first. It’s tough to overstate the affect of the $900 million Corning funding on Michigan’s photo voltaic profile, as a result of it actually is big.

The Photo voltaic Power Industries Affiliation places the full photo voltaic funding in Michigan to this point at a reasonably respectable $1.7 billion. In opposition to that backdrop, a brand new infusion of $900 million represents a lightening step well beyond the $2 billion milestone.

SEIA additionally calculates that the state’s photo voltaic business presently hosts 4,073 jobs. State officers anticipate that the Corning funding will add one other 1,100 jobs to the pile in a single fell swoop.

The Michigan Financial Growth Company organized the motivation package deal to draw Corning, together with a $68 million Important Industries performance-based grant amongst different advantages.

MEDC additionally emphasised that monetary incentives weren’t the one attraction giving it the sting over the competitors.

“Corning selected Michigan for the undertaking over competing websites within the Midwest and Northeast due to its expertise pool and dedication to onshore crucial clear vitality provide chains,” MEDC defined.

MEDC additionally introduced up the expertise angle in the identical announcement, when it famous that Lucid Motors is organising an R&D hub in Michigan with plans for establishing an preliminary group of 200 engineers.

“The corporate selected Michigan for the undertaking over competing websites in Ohio and Texas due to the attractiveness of the state’s workforce and the variety of suppliers within the area,” MEDC defined.

Don’t escape the pom-poms simply but, as MEDC advises that the state legislature nonetheless has to place its John Hancock on the motivation package deal. Nonetheless, the deal seems to be all however accomplished, in accordance with MEDC.

New York Agency Grows The Photo voltaic Trade In Michigan

Since Corning is headquartered in New York, it’s honest to ask why it selected Michigan for its new photo voltaic business funding. The corporate has not up to date its press launch archive as of this writing. MEDC additionally performed it near the vest, stating solely that “Corning Included, a worldwide chief in supplies science, plans to assemble a brand new facility in Richland Township the place it’ll manufacture photo voltaic elements.”

CleanTechnica reached out for some particulars about what photo voltaic elements the brand new manufacturing facility will produce. We’ll present an replace when the knowledge is out there. In the meantime, MEDC notes that the brand new facility isn’t Corning’s first foray into the Michigan photo voltaic business. The corporate additionally co-owns the main Michigan polysilicon agency Hemlock Semiconductor, with the Japanese chemical agency Shin-Etsu Handotai as the opposite co-owner. As described by MEDC, the plan is for the brand new facility to kind a ready-made photo voltaic business hub with Hemlock.

MEDC doesn’t point out the title of the brand new subsidiary in its announcement, however CleanTechnica acquired an e mail describing it as Photo voltaic Expertise LLC. The non-profit information group Bridge Michigan has some additional particulars.

“Corning subsidiary Photo voltaic Expertise LLC — an organization shaped in 2023 and registered in Michigan in January — plans to construct the 1-million-square-foot meeting plant subsequent to Hemlock Semiconductor,” Bridge Michigan reported earlier this week.

Together with the affect on the in-state photo voltaic business profile, the brand new facility is anticipated to place Michigan on the worldwide map, too. Bridge Michigan cites Josh Hundt, MEDC chief tasks officer, who advised attendees at a media briefing that merchandise from the brand new facility “shall be shipped to international areas with an expectation that this can proceed to change into a extra home manufacturing base, each for Corning and the business.”

Michigan’s photo voltaic business plot additionally thickened again in 2022, Bridge Michigan notes, when Hemlock launched into a $375 million enlargement aimed toward rising its manufacturing capability to accommodate development within the photo voltaic business.

Of Course, Perovskites

In fact, no information concerning the photo voltaic business could be full with no point out of perovskite, an rising materials that guarantees to shepherd a brand new era of low price, excessive efficiency photo voltaic cells into the worldwide photo voltaic business.

Michigan has emerged as one of many hotspots for perovskite photo voltaic cell analysis, via the Michigan Engineering department of the College of Michigan.

“An perception into stopping perovskite semiconductors from degrading shortly, found on the College of Michigan, may assist allow photo voltaic cells estimated to be two to 4 occasions cheaper than right now’s thin-film photo voltaic panels,” reported Michigan Engineering Information in January.

We deliver this up as a result of there’s a connection between Corning and perovskite photo voltaic cell know-how. Again in 2020, the New York agency Power Supplies Company inked a joint improvement settlement with Corning, aimed toward “bringing low-cost, high-performance perovskite photo voltaic photovoltaic panels and merchandise to the vitality business.”

“At EMC, our focus is purebred perovskite photo voltaic,” EMC explains. “With its outsized benefits in simplified manufacturing, distinctive excessive effectivity photo voltaic vitality conversion, and confirmed sturdiness, our product plan consists of single junction (one photo voltaic cell layer), bifacial and tandem junction (two photo voltaic cell layers) perovskite photo voltaic modules.”

Chip in just a few {dollars} a month to assist help impartial cleantech protection that helps to speed up the cleantech revolution!

About That Expertise Pool…

The connections between Michigan, Corning, and perovskite photo voltaic cells however, plans for Michigan’s dwelling grown photo voltaic business to prepared the ground right into a perovskite future haven’t but materialized in print. We’re simply guessing at this level.

We would know extra once we get some extra particulars about that new $900 million photo voltaic facility. Within the meantime, let’s lastly get round to that expertise pool angle.

MEDC didn’t say which states have been competing for Corning’s new photo voltaic business funding, however it did name-check Ohio and Texas in relation to Lucid’s new engineering hub. These two states occur to be entrance and middle within the reproductive rights chaos following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Courtroom choice that overturned Roe v. Wade protections. We’re used to seeing them within the context of abortion restrictions. Nonetheless, it’s uncommon to see the 2 name-checked collectively for dropping out on a brand new clear tech funding.

As pertains to the expertise pool, the elimination of federal protections has fostered a brand new state-to-state authorized patchwork. That has raised considerations that essentially the most abortion-restricting states will face new obstacles towards educating, attracting, and recruiting STEM professionals.

That’s not significantly an issue for Michigan, which registers across the center in a state rating of abortion protections and restrictions. In distinction, Ohio hits the “Restrictive” mark and Texas nails down “Most Restrictive” standing.

Considerations over faculty graduates and STEM professionals leaving their dwelling states are nothing new, and to this point the proof of a mind drain from extra restrictive states is anecdotal. For that matter, the Texas photo voltaic business continues to be booming.

Nonetheless, some information is starting to emerge about a mind drain within the Texas ob-gyn subject and different well being care professions. That raises the stakes. If medical professionals are pulling out of abortion-restricting states, then well being care for each pregnancy-capable individual is impacted, not simply these searching for an abortion. That would have a ripple impact on STEM employment throughout the board.

Ohio and Texas caught our consideration within the MEDC announcement as a result of that is the primary time we seen such a call-out within the context of dropping the competitors for clear tech funding {dollars}. For those who’ve seen something alongside these strains, drop us a notice within the remark thread.

Comply with me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Submit, and LinkedIn.

Picture (screenshot): The Michigan photo voltaic business is rising, with the addition of a brand new $900 million funding from Corning to kind a photo voltaic manufacturing hub with the Hemlock Semiconductor polysilicon manufacturing facility (courtesy of Hemlock Semiconductor).