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Ford said it has been working with energy storage system provider Xtreme Power and solar panel maker Clairvoyant Energy, who will be the first companies to take up residency in the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space. The two renewable energy providers have invested about $725m (£635m) to redevelop the site, with work expected to begin early next year and clean tech manufacturing expected to get underway in 2011.

"The Wixom Assembly Plant served Ford well for half a century and we wanted to ensure it served Michigan well into the future," said Ford executive chairman Bill Ford. "Thanks to the collaborative efforts of two visionary energy companies and the leadership of state and local officials, we are transforming our Wixom facility into one of the largest renewable energy parks in the US. I can't imagine a better way to use this facility – for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren."

Although Ford and the other companies involved discussed their role in developing the site, the backers also admit that state and local incentives were key to the project including refundable battery and photovoltaic tax credits, Michigan Economic Growth Authority employment tax credits, Renaissance Zone tax incentives and brownfield tax credits.

Xtreme Power systems, which develops technology to integrate renewable energy onto the electricity grid, will use more than one million square feet of the site.

"This move is significant on both ends of the spectrum," said Carlos Coe, president and chief executive of Xtreme Power. "It underscores a significant shift toward the accelerated commercialisation and adoption of strategic renewable energy technologies, due in large part to the deepened commitment on the part of local, state and federal policymakers to support companies like ours."

For its part, Clairvoyant Energy says it will have the capacity to produce more than 2.5 million solar panels a year at the Wixom site, which the company claims could equate to the need for one large coal plant every year.

"Clairvoyant Energy is fully energised to respond to the call to create the green jobs of tomorrow – today," said David Hardee, chief executive of Clairvoyant Energy.

The Wixom Assembly Plant was one of Ford's largest and oldest manufacturing sites, producing 6.6 million vehicles during its 50 years of operation. Production began in 1957 when Wixom became Lincoln Division's new national headquarters and the sole producer of all vehicles for the Lincoln Division.

"Over the years, Wixom Assembly produced the Lincoln Continental, Town Car, LS, Mark VI, VII and VIII, as well as the Ford Thunderbird and Ford GT," Ford said in a statement.

In May, Ford announced that it would invest $550m in converting a Michigan plant currently used to manufacture SUVs into a factory specialising in small, fuel-efficient cars that will also produce its first electric vehicle.

Documentary film maker Michael Moore covered the plight of sacked Michigan car workers in his 1989 film Roger and Me.

With the help of generous tax incentives from the state of Michigan and expected U.S. Federal government loans and credits, Ford’s active role, and the visionary participation of energy-storage innovator Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant Energy (and turnkey partner Oerlikon) on the solar side, the now-dormant assembly line may soon provide thousands of jobs as it reverberates with the sounds of advanced energy-storage, thin-film PV, and possibly other cleantech production lines within a few years.

Oerlikon Solar’s Chris O’Brien and Clairvoyant’s CEO David Hardee spoke with me about some of the solar specifics of the project.

The Wixom site would represent the first installation of Oerlikon’s turnkey micromorph production line in the United States. If all the government assistance comes through as planned and the additional financing is lined up, the first silicon thin-film modules would be produced in 2011, with a ramp to full production in early 2012.

The first line would have a nominal capacity of 90MW, both parties confirmed, with as many as three additional lines added in the future—depending on market conditions and future incentives. (Factory floorspace is not an issue, according to Hardee, since “there’s certainly enough room for four lines.”) Although Oerlikon’s current line capacity is 75MW (up from 60MW), O’Brien said the company expects that rating to rise to 90MW, once the Clairvoyant factory is ready for installation and commissioning of the equipment.

Hardee said his company chose Oerlikon’s micromorph-silicon thin-film PV technology because it wanted to make sure the technology was “state of the art, proven, capable, where you get economies of scale, and in our mind we could see the next generation. We like the Oerlikon people; they understand our culture and what we’re trying to do in Michigan. It’s a world-class company. We’re going to have a much deeper relationship with them, rather than [them] just being a vendor.”

“What Clairvoyant is betting on,” explained O’Brien, “is that by investing in Oerlikon’s micromorph line, they can leapfrog to a more competitive cost position, one that’s more competitive even with the continuing decreases in crystalline module prices.”

Before any tools come in, the Wixom site will have to be renovated and refurbished for its new tenants’ operations. Hardee said that there will be environmental remediation since it’s a brown-field site, and “Ford will have the building cleaned out and ready to occupy. It’s a fair amount of work but it’s not nearly the kind of work we’d need for a green-field development.

“We’ve got 50MW of power going directly into the factory—the largest single site in the state of Michigan for power,” he continued. There’s interstate highway access nearby and rail lines running directly to the plant.

Hardee broke out his company’s expected portion of the $725 million total price tag announced for the project. “Clairvoyant’s part will be about $250 million of that, with the rest coming from Xtreme,” he said. “That’s just for phase one. For phases two, three, and four, we estimate another $200 million per line.”

While the government incentives take shape (including the Federal programs, which have initial filing deadlines next week), Hardee explained that “on a parallel track, we’re pursuing private equity sources. We’ve got a number of very interested parties.”

From his perspective, O’Brien has seen “some encouraging signs” on the financing front, with conditions moving from “impossible to difficult.” But he also expects that by “early next year, conditions will be much improved.” As for the outlook for the North American market, the Oerlikon exec said the company’s internal view is that the sector “will grow over the next three years to become the largest market in the world.”

The move by Clairvoyant into manufacturing represents a vertical extension of its business model, which up until now has focused on utility-scale solar project development in the U.S. and Europe. Why the change? Based on the company’s experiences as developers, Hardee said they started to see “holes in the supply chain that we were unable to work around. We started thinking that controlling our manufacturing process and being vertically integrated has a lot of merit to it.”

The company, which is actively continuing its project development efforts, “anticipates the original solar panels manufactured in Michigan being placed in Southern California and Arizona as part of our whole process. We’re negotiating large utility-scale power projects in the Southwest.”

Although Clairvoyant will partner with Oerlikon initially, Hardee explained that “in the longer term, we’re tech agnostic. It may be crystalline, it may be CIGS (a PV food group that he thinks has “a good future—we’re actively exploring it”), it could be next-generation Oerlikon. Who knows where all this technology is going? It’s hard to predict.”

What isn’t hard to predict is a continuation of the growing trend to build more solar production in the States, to serve what most observers believe will be a booming market. Noting what he calls the “gathering momentum for increasing PV plant construction in the U.S.,” Shyam Mehta presents an optimistic forecast in Greentech Media’s new report on PV manufacturing in the U.S.:

“U.S. cell and module capacity are estimated to grow at an annualized rate of 50% and 45%, respectively, from 2008 to 2012," the report says. "Thin film will continue to occupy a majority of production share in the U.S., constituting 2.69 GW, or 67%, of cell capacity by 2012. Production share in thin-film technologies will be shared relatively evenly between CdTe (18%), amorphous silicon (24%), and CIGS (22%).

“A standout trend over the next half-decade will be the expected ramp of CIGS capacity and production. U.S. CIGS potential or producible supply will grow from 132 MW in 2009 to 626 MW in 2012, although actual production will depend on market conditions and buyers’ appetite for perceived technology risk. At the same time, the build-out of crystalline silicon PV will also proceed at a strong pace over the next few years: crystalline silicon will still comprise the majority share for any one technology, at 35% of cell and module capacity by 2012.”

With the Wixom project announcement and more pending from the likes of Suntech and SunPower, Mehta will likely have to revise his figures, as the installed capacity of U.S.-based solar production continues its upward trend. This is good news for those who believe that a strong PV manufacturing infrastructure is critical not just for the U.S.’s quest for a renewable-energy future but for the nation’s economic well-being and national security as well.

The two companies will utilize approximately half of the square footage to manufacture their products, and will seek additional green-energy manufacturing and support companies to lease the remaining space. The redevelopment work at the Wixom site is expected to begin early next year with manufacturing at the site slated to begin in late 2011.

Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, will renovate more than 1 million square feet of the Wixom site to manufacture large-scale power systems that store renewable energy such as solar and wind power and redeliver that power when needed.

Clairvoyant Energy of Santa Barbara, Calif., will redevelop a portion of the site to build thin-film solar panels using technology developed by Oerlikon Solar. Clairvoyant said it will have the capacity to produce more than 2.5 million solar panels a year at the facility.

Oerlikon Solar USA plans to establish a regional office at the Wixom site.

The redevelopment plan is expected to create more than 4,000 direct jobs, including local suppliers, as well as support thousands of indirect jobs.

Ford said it has been working with the developers and state and local officials over the past nine months on a redevelopment plan for the 52-year-old auto plant that has produced such iconic vehicles as the Ford Thunderbird, Ford GT and Lincoln Continental.

"There has been a strong interest from existing and new customers about the U.S. market that is driven by a sharp increase in demand by the utility and commercial sectors," O'Brien said.

The U.S. market added 340 megawatts of solar energy generation capacity in 2008, and Oerlikon expects it to grow to 2.7 gigawatts by 2012, he added.

Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Clairvoyant is teaming up with battery maker Xtreme Power in Kyle, Texas to build factories on the sprawling site. Both companies plan to spend $725 million to buy the 320 acres from Ford and renovate it. Clairvoyant would pony up $250 million while Xtreme contribute the $475 million.

Ford operated the Wixom plant for 52 years, during which 6.6 million vehicles such as the Thunderbird and Lincoln Continental rolled out of the assembly lines. Ford closed it in 2007 as part of its restructuring effort.

Clairvoyant and Xtreme plan to occupy about half of the 4.7 million square feet of the building space, and lease the remainder to other greentech companies. Clairvoyant has been a solar power developer, and one of its better known projects involved building a 10-megawatt project on top of a General Motors plant in Spain.

The two manufacturers are getting hefty support from Michigan state lawmakers, who have passed a $100 million tax credit for battery production, and are planning to approve $25 million for solar energy equipment manufacturing.

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Ford Chairman Bill Ford, along with executives from Clairvoyant, Xtreme Power and Oerlikon Solar held a press event at the Wixom plant Thursday to discuss the redevelopment plan.

Michigan, which has the highest unemployment rate in the country, has been aggressive in wooing greentech manufacturers to set up shop there.

In April this year, the state agreed to provide $100 million in tax credits to A123 Systems, a Watertown, Mass.-based lithium-ion battery maker to build factories. A123 subsequently won a $249.1 million federal grant to help fund its construction plans in Michigan (see Feds Give $2.4B to 48 Auto Battery and Electric Drive projects).

Clairvoyant and Xtreme Power also plan to seek federal financial aid. The companies intend to apply for federal loan guarantees to help set up their manufacturing facilities. Obtaining financial support from the government would be crucial for the two companies to go forward with their site purchase plan.

Clairvoyant hopes to line up the necessary funds in 2010 and install the Oerlikon equipment in 2011, O'Brien said. Solar panel production could then begin in 2011 as well, he added.

O'Brien declined to disclose the cost of buying and installing the first, 90-megawatt line, which will feature the company's micromorph technology. There is enough space to accommodate four production lines, O'Brien said.

Oerlikon's equipment produces solar panels that rely on amorphous silicon as the key ingredient for converting sunlight into electricity. The micromorph technology involves adding another layer of microcrystalline to help boost energy production.

Most of Oerlikon's customers are in Europe and Asia.

Oerlikon's chief competitor, Applied Materials in Santa Clara, Calif., doesn't have a customer producing amorphous silicon thin films in the United States at the moment. Applie's customers also are in Europe and Asia.

The project will give new life to an idled automotive manufacturing facility, create new “green” jobs for the state and build on efforts to secure an environmentally sound energy future for Michigan, state officials said Wednesday.

Xtreme Power will create 2,500 direct jobs and 10,000 supplier and indirect jobs, with at least 1,500 located nearby, for a minimum of 4,000 jobs in the Wixom area.

Clairvoyant Energy will create 1,000 direct jobs over a four-tosix year production rollout, including 270 at the start of production in 2011, while its manufacturing partner, Oerlikon, plans to locate many sales/support staff jobs in Wixom.

In all, investment in the project, perhaps the largest economic redevelopment plan ever promoted in Michigan, is expected to reach $1.275 billion.

Xtreme Power, Clairvoyant Energy and Oerlikon Solar all have established credentials in handling high-tech, alternative energy projects.

Xtreme Power designs integrated smart power management solutions from 500 kilowatts to 100 megawatts under all sorts of conditions. One of the company’s devices has been selected by the University of Chicago to power a telescope at the South Pole.

“Our proprietary, solidstate power management and integrated storage enables efficient and available power for an environmentally sound 21st century electricity industry,” Xtreme Power officials said.

Earlier this week, Swissbased Oerlikon Solar announced plans for building a new plant for photovoltaics in China. It already is considered a leader in the solar equipment sector with 10 factories in production.

“Oerlikon Solar is a proven world leader in delivering thin film production equipment to the fast-growing solar energy industry,” said CEO Jeannine Sargent.

Clairvoyant Energy, which is moving its headquarters to Wixom, plans on using Oerlikon equipment to manufacture 300 megawatts of solar panel capacity. Solar panels manufactured by Clairvoyant Energy will be placed in service in solar photovoltaic energy generating systems developed by Clairvoyant Energy and its partners.

The company’s goal is to respond to the call of the U.S. government to promote renewable energy projects and create renewable energy manufacturing in the U.S. to create new “green” jobs, reduce carbon emissions and to lower the U.S. dependence on foreign oil, Clairvoyant officials said.

With its strategic partners, Clairvoyant Energy also is developing renewable energy projects in Italy, Spain, California, Arizona, Florida and now Michigan.

Clairvoyant Energy is well known for its successful development of the world’s largest rooftop solar photovoltaic project on the GM manufacturing plant in Zaragoza, Spain.

The new renewable energy park in Wixom will be co-managed by Clairvoyant Energy, which also is inviting other renewable energy technology companies to locate at the site.

The objective is to create the “nation’s destination site” for renewable energy products on the 320-acre Wixom site that still includes the 4.7-million-square-foot assembly plant Ford closed in 2007.

Production by the anchor manufacturers is planned to commence in the fall of 2011.

Officials from Clairvoyant Energy cited the support of local and state government and an excellent brownfield site that will speed development. In addition they said, the Wixom site also has a desirable network of utilities including electricity, natural gas, rail access and highway access.

In addition, the area around the Wixom plant also supports a supplier base that can provide glass, industrial gases and chemical components. It also has a deep talent pool in specialized fields such as manufacturing management and engineering, as well as technicians and workers with the kind of skills needed to work in production jobs.