Specialty materials maker Corning plans to invest up to $900 million to build a solar component manufacturing plant in Richland Township, Michigan, on Michigan Economic Development Corporation announced on February 27.
The facility is expected to create more than 1,100 jobs and will operate under Corning’s Solar Technology subsidiary.
The board of the Michigan Strategic Fund, a state initiative to attract investment to the state, approved more than $109.3 million in state incentives to support the project. The funding includes $68 million workforce development grants, $12.3 in manufacturing property incentives and $29 million public infrastructure, road improvements and other related expenses.
“These approved incentives helped confirm Michigan as the natural choice for this new effort,” Scott Forester, Corning’s division vice president and program executive, solar, said in a statement. “The planned facility will create thousands of local jobs and advance the goal of expanding access to US renewable energy solutions.”
Corning’s latest investment responds to the growing demand for solar energy. In the third quarter of last year, the US solar market installed 6.5 gigawatts of DC capacity, a 35% year-over-year increase, according to a report. by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Michigan has been making moves to attract more clean energy projects to the state. In August 2023, Plastic Omnium New Energies plans to build a plant in the municipality of Grand Blanc that will design, develop and produce hydrogen storage systems for zero-emission medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
