Gov. Bill Richardson Announces Solar Distinction Inc. Manufacturing Plant in Albuquerque, Creating Hundreds of Jobs

Great news for Albuquerque's workforce. Governor Bill Richardson today announced Solar Distinction, Inc., will build a state of the art photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Albuquerque. The plant will employ 300 within the first two to three years and grow to a workforce of 500 employees.

“I am proud that Solar Distinction, Inc. has decided to locate its state of the art photovoltaic manufacturing plant in Albuquerque,” Governor Richardson said in a statement released today. “This is the type of investment and job opportunities that my administration has worked hard to create, and it shows New Mexico is fast becoming the center of North America’s solar industry.”

Solar Distinction anticipates initially operating a 25MW solar panel manufacturing plant in the Albuquerque metro area, expanding to 50MW within two years. In addition to manufacturing operations at the site, Solar Distinction will base its research and development of solar power generation, storage and end-user applications for commercial, industrial and consumer industries here in New Mexico.

"This announcement is proof that New Mexico is a place where entrepreneurs are finding the infrastructure, intellectual capital and manufacturing capabilities necessary to launch their ventures," Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Fred Mondragón said in a written statement. "The Noribachi Group's entrepreneurial spirit and success is helping to make New Mexico the leader in the generation of next wave technologies."

Solar Distinction is a portfolio company of the Albuquerque-based Noribachi Group, a clean tech private equity firm that invests in and supports the development and commercialization of technologies critical to the burgeoning clean energy economy. Since its founding in 2007, the Noribachi Group has incubated, funded and is building-out 10 clean energy firms, including two Albuquerque-based ventures: Visible Light Solar, an energy technology company providing LED and point of use solar lighting applications which just announced its expansion into a 32,000 sq-ft facility in Albuquerque and Qnuru, a solar/LED lighting company that provides elegantly designed, exterior lighting applications.

Visible Light Solar, Qnuru and other Noribachi-backed companies, including the light-powered consumer electronic firm, Regen, will be using the panels produced by the Solar Distinction Albuquerque plant in their product lines. Solar Distinction will also sell its photovoltaic technologies to third party companies throughout the Southwestern US.

“We believe clean technologies should be developed and manufactured as close to their point of use as possible,” stated Rhonda Dibachi, co-CEO of The Noribachi Group and Chairman of Solar Distinction’s Board of Directors. “Shipping solar panels from Asia makes no more sense today than shipping oil from the Middle East when communities like Albuquerque have the engineering talent and manufacturing capacity to create photovoltaic technologies at a comparable quality and cost. To capture the abundance of our local sunshine, we need to leverage the wealth of our local resources.”

The Economic Development Department made available a job creation grant of $500,000 under the Local Economic Development Act, which will be essential in creating these 500 solid, well paying clean energy jobs.

This is the fourth green economy project announced in 2010 by Governor Richardson. On January 8th, the Governor welcomed Johnson Plate and Tower, wind tower manufacturers, to Santa Teresa. On January 21st, green building products manufacturer C/D² Enterprises announced they were locating in McKinley County. January 27th, the Governor announced Spanish company GA-Solar will be building a 300MW solar array in Guadalupe County. Over the next few years, these four projects combined will create nearly 1000 new green jobs.