When one state lands a pair of billion-dollar industrial projects, the world tends to take notice. When those projects give the state a commanding position in a fast-growing, widely admired industry, the effect tends to be compounded.

The polysilicon manufacturing facilities being built by Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor in Clarksville and Germany-based Wacker Chemie in Bradley County will give Tennessee a dominant position in the growing worldwide market for solar power. The facilities also expand the state’s growing advanced manufacturing base, which provides high-paying jobs that aren’t easily moved offshore.

Wacker is investing $1.5 billion to build its facility, which is expected to employ 650 people and be operational in 2014. Hemlock, meanwhile, is investing $1.2 billion and plans to employ 500 when it comes online in 2013. Hemlock parent company Dow Corning noted in a recent public filing that its polysilicon production was “sold out” to customers in the first half of 2011, and that the situation wasn’t expected to change any time soon.

James Chavez, CEO of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Economic Development Council, called that “very good news.”

Hemlock has options to expand the project, and the state approved a $150 million bond issue in spring 2011 to build infrastructure ahead of a possible $3 billion investment.

Support for Energy Innovation in Tennessee

Energy companies coming to Tennessee enjoy several advantages, including one of the nation’s pre-eminent research facilities in Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The globally renowned research hub has an annual budget of $1.6 billion and about 4,700 employees engaged in everything from neutron science to supercomputing and energy applications.

One of the lab’s focuses is helping to “move all this world-class research to the marketplace,” says Tom Rogers, the lab’s director of industrial partnerships and economic development. One example is a lab-developed heat-absorbing foam that is being used to prolong the life of LED lights, among other uses.

In addition to licensing technology to businesses, Oak Ridge collaborates with companies to solve problems. Rogers says the lab hosted 65 visits through mid-2011, introducing businesses leaders to researchers. The lab also hosts seminars to let entrepreneurs and investors know about research with commercial promise. (Businesses can find out more at www.ornl.gov/adm/partnerships.)

Another resource is the Tennessee Solar Institute, based at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The institute works with Oak Ridge to foster solar innovation and get it to the marketplace.

There’s plenty of interest: Last year, the institute offered $9 million in grants to help businesses install solar. Institute communications manager Chris Davis says the grants went to all corners of the state – and the business world.

“We’ve had banks, construction companies, farms, a company that trains hunting dogs down in Polk County. You name the type of business and there’s a good chance that they’ve installed solar,” he says.

The institute also hosts seminars to help train workers, and has awarded grants worth $14.5 million to help spur private innovation.

Mitsubishi, Alstom power job gains

Energy and advanced manufacturing are a business recruitment focus for Gov. Bill Haslam, and not just in the solar sector.

In February, Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced plans to build a $200-million facility in Memphis that will employ 275 people making extra-high-voltage power transformers. And France-based Alstom is building a $300 million plant in Chattanooga, where 350 people will build turbines for power generation.

Like Hemlock and Wacker, both projects will involve high-tech manufacturing, which requires a skilled workforce, making the jobs higher-paying and harder to move offshore.

Another example is Volkswagen’s new auto manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, which came online in late 2010.

The strategies appear to be paying off. Last summer, Business Facilities magazine named Tennessee its State of the Year, and said it had the second-highest potential for economic growth in the nation.