Dow Corning proposes solar research center

Dow Corning Corp. hopes to make its Bay County headquarters a global center for solar energy research.

But first, the corporation wants state and federal financial support to help build a proposed $60 million to $80 million research facility.

If those plans become reality, the center would employ 250 people at first and as many as 2,000 eventually. It would be a world-class facility for solar innovation that would bring together top scientists and university researchers, Dow Corning spokeswoman Mary Lou Benecke said Friday. And it could anchor a larger science and technology park.

For now, though, the project is still in the discussion stage.

"We're not digging the foundation yet," Benecke said. "We're talking about it and it's something we'd really love to do. We believe there is a need for it in the industry."

Dow Corning is calling the proposed facility the American Solar Power Innovation and Research Enterprise, or ASPIRE. The corporation has presented a draft proposal to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to make a business case for the project.

ASPIRE would operate as a nonprofit research organization, separate from Dow Corning's own research and development activities, according to the draft.

Dow Corning would help support and manage the facility on or near its corporate campus, located near the intersection of US-10 and highway M-47 in southwest Bay County.

Benecke said Dow Corning hopes to develop a financing package for the project this year. Financing would include an undetermined amount of cash from Dow Corning.

"We're trying to get some state and federal funding. We'd like to do it here in Michigan," she said.

Although ASPIRE has been discussed in a few public forums, the solar research center remains a concept and not a definite plan, Benecke said.

"If we got our way, this is what we would like," she said.

Dow Corning and its majority-owned subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., are moving aggressively into the solar industry as leaders in the manufacture of materials used in solar panels.

HSC launched a $1 billion expansion in Saginaw County in 2008 and broke ground for a similar facility in Tennessee this month. Hemlock makes polycrystalline silicon, used in solar wafers.

Dow Corning also plans to build a plant in Saginaw County to produce monosilane gas, which is used in thin-film solar cells. Dow Corning also has a small research center for the solar industry in Freeland.

Officials from the MEDC could not be reached Friday evening for comment.