A photo of Mayor Eddie Francis in Germany at the production facility of Algatec Solar, a manufacturer of solar modules. Algatec is the German company that is setting up a plant in Windsor, making it the latest player in the region's growing renewable energy industry.
Photograph by: Algatec company website, The Windsor Star
By Dylan Kristy, The Windsor Star
WINDSOR, Ont. -- A German-based solar module manufacturer is the latest renewable energy company to be drawn to Windsor’s “high-skilled workforce,” says the company’s project manager.
Algatec Solar Ontario Inc. announced Wednesday it will open a 50,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Windsor, creating as many as 200 jobs in the area.
“We expect to benefit from the high-skilled labour force from people who worked within the automotive industry,” Juergen Mehl, project manager for Algatec said Wednesday.
“In our factory we will need people familiar with an automated production line, shift work and all the technical related things to run the line like we have in the solar plant.”
Mehl said Windsor’s reputation for industry is “well known all over the world” and had long been under consideration for the plant’s location.
Mayor Eddie Francis said he travelled in January to an Algatec plant in Brandenburg, Germany, to discuss the company opening a plant in Windsor.
He said Algatec’s move will help to draw more investment to the area in the future.
“This is another addition to our growing cluster of renewable energy and solar companies that certainly continues to establish us as the North American hub for renewable energy,” Francis said en route to the airport where he’ll fly to Europe to tour aquatic centres in the Netherlands and Ireland.
“It’s a remarkable story in terms of where we were to where we are today and it’s due to the fact that we’re out there knocking on every door and making sure that we’re doing everything we can to make it known to the world that we’re open to business,” Francis said.
Algatec will be investing more than $10 million into its Ontario operation. The plant will be at 3126 Devon Dr.
Mehl said the initial phase of operation will see 50 megawatts of silicon based solar modules manufactured annually by 100 employees.
A second phase of operation is likely to be added in the future in which an additional 100 employees will likely be hired.
Mehl wouldn’t comment on the hourly wage workers will receive but said the factory will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We will need technicians to maintain our equipment, production workers on the line handling the material and some people for logistics and packaging,” Mehl said.
Algatec operates two factories in Germany that supply solar modules to the European market and the Windsor plant is intended to supply both the Canadian and American markets.
“The message that Windsor-Essex is the place to do business is getting out there and we see it with companies like Algatec, we certainly see it with the Top 7 designation and with the recent ranking as a tourism destination,” Francis said.
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