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FAIRLESS HILLS, PA-Chatham, NJ-based AE Polysilicon Corp. has agreed to buy 20 acres, which include a 39,000-sf vacant building in the Keystone Industrial Port Complex. It will invest $70 million to renovate the existing building into its headquarters and construct a manufacturing plant on five adjacent acres.
The company makes polysilicon, which is a raw material used in panels that convert solar energy into electricity. The 1,300-acre complex is the former site of US Steel Fairless Works factory. In 2004, it received a Keystone Opportunity Zone designation, which offers tax breaks through 2014.
Gov. Ed Rendell's action team has provided a financial package of slightly more than $1.9 million from the Department of Community and Economic Development. It includes a loan of nearly $1.8 million through the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, a $100,000 grant from the Opportunity Grant Program, and $65,000 in customized job training funds.
AE Polysilicon is also eligible to apply for a $5.8-million low-cost loan from the Citizens Job Bank program. The facility is scheduled to begin construction this July and employ at least 143 people within a year.
York Tsuo, president of AE Polysilicon, says, "The amount of support we have received from the state and local governments and industry has made Pennsylvania the ideal state to locate our production facilities." Motech Solar Industries Inc. of Taiwan, which is headed by his brother, Y. Simon Tsuo, is backing the start-up venture.
This is the second company related to alternative energy to locate in the complex. A year ago, as GlobeSt.com reported, Victoria, Spain-based Gamesa Corp., a producer of wind power, committed $40 million to the development of three plants, which are under way on 20 acres.
This February, Rendell unveiled an Energy Independence Strategy that is designed to save state consumers $10 billion in energy costs over the next decade. The strategy involves making more than $100 million available in venture capital, loans and grants to attract private sector investors. "Putting this strategy to work will allow us to make new investments in alternative energy projects like AE Polysilicon [and] create thousands of jobs," he says in a statement.
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