Suniva, a Norcross, GA, manufacturer of silicon solar cells, announced on April 1 that it will build a new manufacturing plant in Michigan’s Saginaw County after being selected for a $141 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The announcement comes after Suniva was lured to Michigan in October 2009 through a $15 million tax credit over five years granted by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Suniva’s new manufacturing plant will create 500 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect ones. Suniva says it will use the loan to more than triple exports in the next five years. Ninety percent of its products are exported to Asia and Europe.
Author: Howard Lovy
Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade.
In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank.
In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
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