Ivanpah Steel Supplier Breaks Ground on New Manufacturing Plant in Arizona
Last month, BrightSource executives traveled to Arizona to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new steel manufacturing plant being built by Gestamp Solar Steel, a supplier for the Ivanpah plant. Executives from Gestamp were joined by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and leaders from the City of Surprise, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and other dignitaries. Full press release from Gestamp Solar can be found here.
After winning the contract to supply steel structures for the Ivanpah plant, Gestamp Solar Steel needed to build an entirely new facility to meet the increase in demand. They chose to locate their new facility in the city of Surprise, Arizona, creating 50 new local manufacturing jobs and additional jobs during the construction process. In addition to the 1,000 construction jobs and 86 operations and maintenance jobs, the Ivanpah project is also beginning to create manufacturing jobs across the nation.
Utility-scale solar projects are accompanied by deep supply chains that are contributing to rebuilding America’s manufacturing base. In addition to the partnership with Gestamp, we recently signed a contract with a Michigan company to supply Ivanpah with solar tracking drives. Cone Drive Gearing Solutions will provide the gear boxes that will be attached to our mirrors at Ivanpah, helping the heliostats accurately track the sun’s rays. We’re proud to see solar projects like Ivanpah contributing to the broader trend of clean energy job creation and a resurgence of a US manufacturing sector.