The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) Wednesday announced that Midland, Michigan has been identified as the preferred site for the first full-scale production facility for its solar roofing product, called the Powerhouse Solar Shingle.
The decision is subject to finalizing local, state and federal funding.
Dow said the facility could bring more than 1,200 solar jobs to the region by 2014.
The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) is currently considering up to $140 million in economic incentives for the plant, which would produce the photovoltaic solar panels in the form of shingles that can be integrated into rooftops with standard asphalt shingle materials. Local, state and federal funding will help Dow Solar Solutions to accelerate production plans for the solar shingles already being manufactured in a small-scale market development plant at Dow’s Michigan Operations in Midland.
If received, the MEDC economic package will add to the $100 million in investments Dow has already made in the development of solar solutions since the program’s inception in 2007 when Dow was awarded a $20 million Solar America Initiative Pathways Program grant by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Powerhouse Solar Shingles are expected to be available in limited amounts by mid-2010 and projected to be more widely available in 2011 as production scale-up begins.
The Solar Shingle integrates low-cost, thin-film CIGS photovoltaic cells into a proprietary roofing shingle design, which represents a multi-functional solar energy generating roofing product. The product design is expected to reduce installation costs because conventional roofing shingles and solar generating shingles are installed simultaneously by roofing contractors–no specialized skills or knowledge of solar array installations are required.
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