Tower Automotive To Bring 200 New Solar Jobs to Arizona

According to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, her administration has secured an agreement with Tower Automotive to locate a manufacturing facility in Arizona that is likely to produce at least 200 local jobs.In September of 2009, Livonia, Michigan-based Tower Automotive, a global supplier of vehicle structural parts and assemblies, announced a strategic diversification which would see it manufacturing parts for Stirling Energy Systems under a long-term agreement.Stirling Energy Systems, or SES, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a pioneer in the design and implementation of utility-scale concentrating solar power solutions. Concentrating solar power, or CSP, is currently the only form of solar energy which can boast efficiencies over 20 percent.In fact, while the world’s (reportedly) most efficient solar panel, manufactured by California-based SunPower Corporation, has a maximum efficiency of 20.4 percent – a rating confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – a single Stirling engine solar dish (at Sandia National Laboratories) has a proven conversion efficiency of 31.25 percent. Using established forms of solar heat storage can raise these efficiencies even higher.Under the agreement, Tower will manufacture the faceted mirror component for the SunCatcher CSP for use in systems installed in North America by Tessera Solar. Both SES and Tessera are owned by parent company NTR Plc., a renewable energy group based in Dublin, Ireland.Tower’s new location for making the mirrors will be in the Phoenix-metro area, and the move will also make the company eligible for tax credits and property tax reductions under the 2010 Arizona Department of Commerce Renewable Energy Incentive Program (REIP, SB1403), effective January 1, which provides a financially attractive package for renewable energy manufacturing firms.Under this REIP program, companies can apply for income tax credits based on the dollar amount of capital investment and the number of new, full-time, above-median-wage jobs with health benefits that are created as a result of investment.Property tax incentives, which also depend on the size of the project and the wages that are paid, reduce applicable real property and personal property taxes for up to 15 years.All in all, it’s good news for Tower, even better news for Phoenix, and superb news for CSP solar, which promises to become the most efficient, effective, and affordable method of creating utility-scale solar energy.As Tessera Solar CEO Bob Lukefahr, recently noted, SunCatcher systems create AC power, so there’s no need for inverters. They operate even in moderately cloudy weather (thanks to thermal inertia systems already incorporated), do not require water, and the mirrors do not degrade, unlike solar photovoltaic panels.Components can easily be exchanged, so there are no huge repair costs, and the life expectancy of SunCatcher systems is at least 20 years, and likely quite a bit more.All that remains is for some company to create a CSP system scaled to residential use.