Tennessee’s investment in solar technology is proving a potent economic force, attracting three major manufacturing projects in less than three years and setting up supply chain opportunities for additional clean energy jobs.

Creation of the Tennessee Solar Institute at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory also brings together academic, scientific, engineering and technical experts with government and industry leaders to help speed development of solar photovoltaic technology. The institute created a $23.5 million Solar Opportunity Fund for grants to solar companies expanding their operations, and businesses installing solar systems. Additionally, Tennessee is creating a 5-megawatt solar farm in Haywood County in western Tennessee as a demonstration site for solar-related technologies.

These efforts have put Tennessee on the solar map and attracted next-generation solar component producers that focus on making the technology more efficient and affordable. Missouri-based Confluence Solar, for example, announced in January 2010 that Clinton would be the home of its new manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facility. The $200 million investment means 250 new jobs producing premium quality mono-crystal silicon ingots. The company’s technology increases the efficiency of solar cells by 15 percent or more.

“Confluence Solar shows how quickly people are realizing we have a unique blend of opportunities,” says Ryan Gooch, Tennessee’s director of energy policy. “Confluence takes silicon from hyperpure polycrystalline silicon and pulls single crystal cells out of it to slice and use in other applications. These are high-skill, high-wage jobs. It is where the innovation is occurring.”

The company will develop a 200,000-square-foot building on 25 acres in the Clinton I-75 Industrial Park. About 100 miles southwest, Wacker Chemie AG is spending spend $1 billion to develop a plant that produces Confluence Solar’s raw material – hyperpure polycrystalline silicon, the first building block in solar power technology. Munich-based Wacker Chemie is the world’s second-largest producer. The global leader, Hemlock Semiconductor, broke ground on $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion facility in Clarksville in November 2009. The joint venture between Dow Corning Corp. and two Japanese companies will start production in 2012.

Other major players include Sharp Corp., which has expanded its solar panel production capacity in Memphis three times since 2003; AGC Flat Glass, with two operations in eastern Tennessee; and Shoals Technologies Group, which is relocating its headquarters from Alabama to Gallatin and is now building solar components in Portland. Shoals produces wire harnesses, junction boxes and integration equipment.

Anchored by Oak Ridge and UT, the research and development piece is busy, too. ORNL scientists are working to improve solar cell efficiency, molecule by molecule; using new materials that are less expensive; harnessing solar power to charge electric vehicles; and measuring the effect solar installations have on the nation’s power grid, says Chad Duty, the lab's solar technology program manager.

Oak Ridge has the largest materials science lab in the country and also wants to make its tools, techniques and experts available to the solar industry. “One of our key interests is helping the solar industry move forward,” Duty says. “Companies in short order can find out whether what they have will work.”

The activity is getting Tennessee national and international attention. Trade & Industry Development magazine named Wacker Chemie and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development one of 30 winners of its 2010 Corporate Investment & Community Impact Awards. The publishers reviewed more than 1,000 applications. And Tennessee has the third-fastest growing clean energy economy in the nation, according to a 2009 study by The Pew Charitable Trusts. “Two companies on either end of the state means it really can work anywhere,” Gooch says. “These green jobs are real.”