Evergreen Solar to double plant's size, add 350 jobs

Evergreen Solar's CEO, Richard M. Feldt (right), says Governor Deval Patrick's commitment to solar power played a key role in the company's decision to expand in Massachusetts. (Ellen Harasimowicz for The Boston Globe/File 2007)

Evergreen Solar Inc., a Marlborough maker of solar-power products, is expected to announce today that it will double the size of its manufacturing facility at the former Fort Devens in Harvard and add about 350 new jobs as part of its ongoing expansion.

The move, which helps position Massachusetts as a national hub for clean-energy industries, is the second phase of a growth plan that would more than triple Evergreen's workforce from its current 300 workers to about 1,000.

Evergreen's decision to significantly bolster its presence in the state is a victory for Governor Deval Patrick's administration, which has vowed to make Massachusetts a leader in clean energy, such as wind and solar power.

Last year, Evergreen selected the former Fort Devens for a solar panel factory that would generate about 350 jobs. That plant, funded in part by a $44 million state incentive package, will open this summer.

The expansion being revealed today - to be financed entirely by private investment - will add 350 more jobs, as well as another 150,000 square feet to the 300,000-square-foot facility already under construction.

The expansion, expected to be completed by the end of 2009, would also double the plant's energy production capability to 160 megawatts a year.

In February, Evergreen raised $170 million for the expansion project by issuing shares on the public market. The money will fund both construction and equipment.

Last month, the company held a job fair that attracted more than 600 people, about a third of whom will eventually be hired, said Evergreen's president and chief executive, Richard Feldt.. Most of those positions will be production jobs, as well as some technician, engineering, and supervisory positions.

In addition to wooing companies like Evergreen whose technologies produce no greenhouse gas emissions and could help the country reduce its dependence on foreign oil, administration officials recently launched a rebate program that makes it cheaper for businesses and homeowners to install solar panels.

For Evergreen, a public company founded in 1994, the state's commitment to solar power played a key role in its decision to expand in Massachusetts, Feldt said.

Before Patrick took office, Evergreen was considering building its first US manufacturing facility in a state such as Oregon or New Mexico that offers hefty incentives to clean energy companies, Feldt said. But during his gubernatorial campaign, Patrick visited Evergreen's Marlborough headquarters to try to persuade it to construct its plant in Massachusetts, according to Feldt.

Ultimately, the $44 million financing package dangled by Massachusetts - including $23 million in grants and $17.5 million in low-interest loans - was not the most generous Evergreen was offered. But "what really tipped the scales was the Patrick administration's focus on alternative energy," Feldt said.

"Deval said he was going to create an environment that is solar-friendly, and that was really important to us, and he's really done that," Feldt added. "So while the financial incentive was attractive but not the best, it was the genuine interest - and then the follow-through - in making solar important in Massachusetts that had us stay here."

Besides Evergreen, the state recently attracted a wind blade research facility that will be built near the Tobin Bridge. In addition, Greatpoint Energy, a Cambridge company that specializes in coal and natural gas conversion technology, is building a pilot facility in Somerset.

Ian Bowles, Patrick's secretary of energy and environmental affairs, called these projects "evidence of the momentum that Governor Patrick is building for the clean-energy industry."

"These are a series of commitments and initiatives that are really meant to take aggressive steps to put Massachusetts at the forefront of this growth in the clean-energy industry," he said.

Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com.