State Funded Production Facility Creates Jobs

FINDLAY TWP., PA-State investments of $9 million helped Flabeg, a Germany-based company, choose Allegheny County for its first solar mirror production facility in the US, “creating 300 manufacturing jobs and strengthening Pennsylvania’s position as a leader in clean energy development,” Gov. Edward Rendell revealed.

The company will use the facility to manufacture parabolic solar mirrors, which are used to help generate electricity at large-scale solar power plants. It will be the company’s first US facility of this type. Flabeg plans to lease a 20-acre site in the Buchner Co.’s Clinton Commerce Park in Findlay, and build a 209,000-sf manufacturing facility. The building will be constructed in two phases, with the first phase starting this fall. The total investment in both phases of the project is expected to be $30 million. Flabeg will retain 198 jobs at its other Allegheny County location, in Brackenridge, which manufactures mirror glass for passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

Gov. Rendell says that the State has already created more than 3,000 jobs in the renewable energy industry and leveraged $1 billion in private investment and, “with solar energy production growing at an incredible pace and markets continuing to expand, it’s clear that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg.”