Old Polaroid factory turns to solar panel production

[n2doc]

By Sarah Dowdey | Thu Jan 7, 2010 12:33 PM ET

In New Bedford, Mass., a shuttered plant that once rolled out Polaroid film is up and running again. Except this time, the plant isn't producing film -- it's making extremely thin flexible solar panels. Back in 2008, the factory got a second chance as Konarka Technologies Inc., converted the equipment to make what it calls "power plastic." According to NPR's "Morning Edition," the sheets can be used as fabric, say for a cell-phone-charging window in a purse or briefcase, or as an integrated window panel.

Konarka also hired back about 20 of Polaroid's workers, making this story a good illustration of how new green jobs can arise from an outdated industry. Marcy Lowe, a researcher at Duke University’s Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness, spoke recently through the Knight Center on the importance of local industrial assets in the turn toward green jobs. She gave the example of Infinia Corporation, which designed its solar dishes so they could be made in Tier 1 and Tier 2 auto plants, but the Polaroid/Konarka story also works. Factories that have shut down due to the economy or changing technology can sometimes be repurposed (along with some employees), for a new end.

Both are also real-world examples of why it's so hard to pin down the number of green jobs we should expect to see in the future. The advent of some green jobs obviously means a decline in the industry it's phasing out (for a one-dimensional example, think an out-of-work coal miner for every new solar technician). Other existing jobs will shift into the green realm. But the scenarios like the one at Polaroid are on another level. New job, new product. Same workers, same factory. It's a green job for sure, and a boon to the re-hired workers and the town of New Bedford, but it can also be seen as a replacement for a job that used to exist. Tricky, isn't it?

http://news.discovery.com/earth/shuttered-polaroid-factory-turns-to-solar-panels.html

[tabatha]

1. That is great news.

Film was not environment friendly.
Hopefully solar manufacture is clean; as its use will be environment friendly.

[thereismore]

2. This just makes me feel so GOOD! nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. I once inspected a Goodyear facility

(it killed a 3d party contractor who thought he locked out the power, only to find himself crushed and mixed into itty bitty pieces)

that reused and adapted rather old machines. In fact, the tolerances the old equipment could deal with, constantly, at high speeds, and without failure, was far better than new and improved machines offered by Japanese, Chinese or other modern suppliers. The old machines, once retrofitted, were so well designed, over engineered, and well manufactured, that they were used in Goodyear's most secret and most advanced rubber/plastic mixture that went into their top of the line radials. What a thrill to see spanking new laser/computing/testing equipment attached to an obviously 90 yr old base and machine.