The Department of Energy announced that a $400 million loan guarantee has been finalized for Abound Solar Manufacturing, LLC to manufacture state-of-the-art thin-film solar panels. The Abound Solar project represents the fifth Recovery Act project to close to date. The project, which includes facilities in Longmont, Colorado, and Tipton, Indiana, will use new manufacturing technology for Cadmium-Telluride panels that has never before been deployed commercially in the world. At full capacity, the project will be capable of producing 840MW of solar panels each year.
The company estimates the project will create 1,200 new jobs for ongoing manufacturing and operations – including 200 in Colorado and 1,000 in Indiana. The project will also support hundreds of construction jobs and an estimated 1,600 ongoing supply chain jobs throughout the Midwest including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio.