TIPTON, Ind. -- Back in the 1990s, when he oversaw General Electric's appliance plant in Bloomington, Tom Tiller said Indiana's sturdy work ethic impressed him.
These days, the engineer resides near Denver, where he's ambled into the Wild West of energy and pulled Central Indiana along on the new gold rush.
Only this time, it could take more than hard work to strike it rich.
Nearly 150 rival companies worldwide are racing him to cash in on the elusive goal: turning sunshine into inexpensive electric power.
"The vision for this company is to become the next great solar company," said Tiller, chief executive officer of Abound Solar, based in Longmont, Colo.
The 3-year-old company, a Colorado State University spinoff financed partly by European investors, bought an empty auto plant at Tipton last year to produce solar panels largely for export. European subsidies have created a solar power boom.
Abound officials showed up Tuesday at the unheated, 600,000-square-foot building off U.S. 31 for separate conferences they called with news reporters, local leaders and contractors.
"What we're trying to do is open lines of communications with the community," Tiller said.
Plans call for scaling up the Longmont plant over the next year, preparing it as the engineering center for product development.
Abound then will focus on Tipton and install machinery. Operations could begin in 18 to 20 months, and employment could reach 900 sometime after 2013.
Skilled wages as high as $20 and $30 per hour could bolster Tipton. The community was shaken when the never-used plant was abandoned in 2008 after a financial dispute between Chrysler and German transmission designer Getrag.
Despite the desire for more jobs, the solar industry is in turmoil. China's low costs even now are pressing U.S. solar panel makers.
Only last month, solar panel maker Evergreen announced it would close its 3-year-old Massachusetts plant and move work to Wuhan, China.
China's grants, low-interest loans and low wages bring the cost of making panels to about $1 per watt, compared with more than $1.30 in the U.S., industry reports show.
And in November, California-based Solyndra closed a U.S. plant and postponed an expansion in spite of a $535 million federal loan.
At the same time, industry analysts report, panel prices worldwide have fallen by half since 2008 as venture capital firms and the U.S. government poured more than $8 billion into clean energy.
Meanwhile, European solar leaders Iberdrola and Phoenix Solar have begun setting up U.S. plants to rival American leaders SunPower and First Solar.
Tiller says his goal is to make Abound second only to First Solar as America's largest solar panel maker. However, the Phoenix company appears to have a cost advantage. It produces primarily in low-cost Malaysia to counter China's low wages. China now accounts for about half the world's output of solar panels.
"China wants to dominate the solar industry," said Tiller, an MIT graduate and Harvard MBA. In an interview, he pointed out that "the idea here is to build the lowest-cost product for the world. We're not afraid of $1 (per watt) pricing."
Abound's proprietary technology in making panels out of cadmium and telluride gives it an edge, he said. Investors like the idea. Plans call for raising as much as $250 million on the stock market or from investors in two or three years.
That would be new cash topping a $400 million federal loan secured in the fall and $12 million in state tax credits pledged by Indiana. An additional $260 million in venture capital is already in hand, led by New York investor Invus Group, which is funded in part by wealthy Europeans.
Now, Abound is moving ahead on its high-tech bet. The company has already landed customers such as Chevron in the U.S. and big European producers of solar systems.
Analysts forecast increasing installation of solar facilities worldwide. Next year, 17,000 megawatts of solar power could come on line. That's a volume of power equal to the output of about two dozen coal-fired power plants.
"The world is moving toward renewable energy. There's no question about that," Tiller said.
Just as there was no question, he noted, about the selection of the big and empty Tipton plant for Abound's main production center of the future.
"I had a good experience in Indiana before, so we're back to kick the can."
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