Colorado won solar plant due to tech know-how and available plant space

Colorado won the PrimeStar Solar plant because it had a technology head-start and a facility that could quickly be turned into a factory, said Victor Abate, head of the renewable energy business for General Electric Co., PrimeStar’s owner.

The technology to be used in the factory was developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden and PrimeStar, an Arvada-based company bought by GE in April.

State economic development officials also identified a former warehouse in Aurora that could quickly be converted into a factory with a production capacity of 400-megawatts, enough panels per year to power 80,000 homes.

“We could take the talent we had here and we found a facility we could make work so we could get to market sooner,” Abate said.

Abate said that construction would start on the country’s largest thin-film solar plant in January and be producing panels for the market in 2013. The plant will employ 355 workers.

The company will invest $300 million to retrofit and expand a 200,000-square-foot former L’Oreal Worldwide warehouse in the Majestic Commercenter northeast of I-70 and Tower Road, sources familiar with the deal said. The company will double the building’s size within the next two years…

Read More: Colorado won solar plant due to tech know-how and available plant space via Denver Post