GE to build the US's largest solar panel factory (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Manufacturing giant General Electric (GE) has announced plans to build the largest solar panel factory in the US.

The firm is planning to invest $600m (£375m) in the plant which they hope will be operational by 2013.

GE has not yet said where it will be built with a location expected to be announced within the next hundred days.

The move is part of a push into renewable energy by GE, which recently bought US solar firm PrimeStar Solar and plans to buy 25,000 electric cars.

The new plant will employ 400 people and each year it will manufacture solar panels with a capacity of 400MW.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13000695

[msongs]

1. it pays no corporate income tax so why not lol nt

[doc03]

5. According to their annual report they paid over $1.2 billion

in federal income tax in 2010.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. ALERT!!!! Some one is using verifiable facts

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. Is there a definitive source for that? GE spokeswoman said it was zero

"GE did not pay US federal taxes last year because we did not owe any," spokeswoman Anne Eisele told AFP, rejecting suggestions the United States' fourth largest company was gaming the system.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iKsuJGAIixQeosmxOctEB-0bhW3g?docId=CNG.34a222e35c6a2e98d03744cee3b43b05.1b1

[physioex]

6. I agree with you....

You know I was watching a show on Fox with Stossel called freeloader, and they were solely attacking GE for not paying taxes. But the attacking was pretty selective as they were going only after the green energy divisions, not the other divisions like financials.

But I am glad to see an investment in solar panels, it was nice sunny day today and I was thinking what a waste that we couldnt use this energy to make some electricity.

[Fearless]

2. So they'll pay taxes once they turn an even LARGER profit?

[flamingdem]

3. Along the eay they can put small shops out of business, then outsource it all to China nt

[KurtNYC]

4. $600 million won't be enough. where will the rest of the $$$ come from?

China spent around $32B on solar factories and they are cranking them out.

[physioex]

7. Tell it to the assholes in DC.....

They are poised to make huge profits the next several decades while we get left behind.

[KurtNYC]

8. Solar got $4 billion in grants and another $16 bil in guarantees

in the USA. So I am thinking GE is getting some of that action.

But the Chinese spent more and are already out producing us and cheaper. You can have live solar power at $2 / watt of capacity and that is still dropping. Storing the power for night time use is still the biggest part of the expense and batteries are environmentally crappy.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-04/china-burie...

Without cheap eco-friendly batteries solar isn't so eco-friendly (or cheap)

[physioex]

9. Batteries...

Meh...Not a fan, like you said not cheap and too many toxic chemicals. How bout a simpler way we can commercially produce hydrogen from solar and then use that hydrogen in the downtime.

[kristopher]

11. Bullshit.

dedicated storage is not needed to make solar an extremely beneficial addition to a home's energy system. If you want to have the specific goal of going off the grid, that is one thing, but the vast majority of solar systems at the present time are grid tied - for good reasons.

And if home storage is what you want lithium batteries for EVs are now starting to hit their stride in mass production also as the big players are already targeting the home solar system as an area of large future growth. These batteries are highly efficient, fully recyclable and "eco-friendly".

Just what we need, another source of misinformation about renewable resources...

[KurtNYC]

13. Batteries are not a 'renewable resource'

Most of the metals for batteries come from South Africa and the Andes and sources are finite. Bolivia has half the known reserves and already has deals with China, Korea and France. Lithium batteries are very expensive currently. For example, the batteries that go into EVs are typically $9000 per vehicle.

"mass production of lithium carbonate is not environmentally sound, it will cause irreparable ecological damage to ecosystems that should be protected" -Meridian International Research, France 5/29/2008

I may be less comfortable than some in calling a source that relies heavily on the coal/nuke grid an "alternative." There are issues to be worked on -- the efficiency of appliances, efficiency of various conversion, costs, life of the panels, etc. I like solar and use some but the challenge for solar is bigger than just making cheap panels.

[physioex]

14. Yes...

There won't be any one solution. Like we have different sources now, we could also have different renewable sources like wind, biomass (switch grass, algae), geothermal.

[kristopher]

15. "An Abundance of Lithium" by R K Evans.

Meridian Research International is a dude that owns rights to a zinc battery technology; a product that's significantly inferior to lithium batteries. That scare pamphlet was completely refuted by the world's foremost expert on lithium resources about 3 years ago; are you really that out of the loop?

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1434

Any other false information you'd like to share?

No one said lithium was a "renewable resource", I said lithium batteries are able to be completely recycled.

[kristopher]

12. Please get you terms right - "Tell it to the REPUBLICAN assholes in DC..."

is how that should read, since the Dems have been trying very, very hard to to the right thing.

[howaboutme]

10. Just like the NFL, they play the states against each other

The NFL regularly threatened to move their teams unless taxpayers in their city built them new plush stadiums. That's how corporate America (I hesitate to use that phrase) have connived so that tax payers are stuck paying business to build their work places. We must pay for what should be the cost of production whether it be football or solar panels. They profit, pay no taxes and we pay.

These are bribes just as surely are campaign contributions.

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. Mass can give them a sweet deal on a slightly used factory nt