Energy Secretary Bodman Helps Break Ground at Solar Facility

July 14, 2005

Photo of a couple talking with Secretary Bodman as they examine a 3-foot-long rectangular piece of flexible solar cell material.

Energy Secretary Bodman discusses thin-film solar power technologies with Stan and Iris Ovshinsky, founders of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc., the parent company of United Solar Ovonic.
Credit: Joe Polimeni/ECD

Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman joined United Solar Ovonic on June 14th in breaking ground on the company's new amorphous silicon thin-film solar manufacturing plant in Auburn Hills, Michigan. When the new 160,000-square-foot facility is completed in May 2006, it will create 200 new jobs and double production, allowing the company to produce enough solar modules each year to generate 50 megawatts of power. United Solar Ovonic's existing plant is already the largest of its type in the world, producing flexible thin-film solar power modules using technologies developed through 20 years of research by the company and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). See the DOE press release, Secretary Bodman's comments at the event, and the related press release from United Solar Ovonic (PDF 118 KB). Download Adobe Reader.

NREL's work with United Solar Ovonic is part of DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Program, one of 11 programs within the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. See the Solar Energy Technologies Program Web site.