Readers of Solar Nation¡¯s Solar Citizen newsletter may remember the announcement in March of this year of a CSP and PV equipment manufacturing plant to be built by Schott AG near Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The ground-breaking was a grand occasion, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson helping to turn the soil.

It was very much on the minds of everyone involved, of course, that inaction on the part of the U.S. Congress on extension of investment tax credits for clean energy could doom the prospects of this and other solar enterprises.   Now that the extension has happened, however, I asked Gerry Fine, president of Schott America, what his company¡¯s plans for the plant are.  Gerry is happy with the continuing international demand for Schott¡¯s products  ¡ª mainly PV modules and concentrated solar receivers ¡ª and reports that the Albuquerque plant is expected to be up and running by March of 2009.

¡°We¡¯re actually sold out for the first build from the new plant,¡± Fine said.  ¡°The next run will be in April and the third in June.  Of course, we want the international economic situation to have stabilized long before then, so we can keep filling the runs with firm orders.¡±

Fine is very bullish on prospects for concentrated solar, and expects the new plant to build more product for that market than for PV.  He feels that the removal of the prohibition on utilities claiming the investment tax credit, which occurred when the Congressional bill was passed earlier this month, may lead utilities to look more favorably on concentrated solar as an alternative to existing and planned fossil fuel sources.

¡°We are expecting the demand for concentrated solar to be steadier than that for PV,¡± said Fine, ¡°given the latter market¡¯s greater susceptibility to ripples in the economic situation.¡±