A solar panel manufacturer plans to expand and automate one of its production processes less than a year after beginning operations.
Heliene, which opened in a former Silicon Energy facility in Mountain Iron, Minnesota, last fall, is seeking a $600,000 loan from the Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation to facilitate the project, the Duluth News Tribune reports.
The agency, which supports economic development efforts in mining-heavy areas in the state’s northeastern corridor, was expected to approve the loan this week. The project would automate a crucial, complicated process that has created a bottleneck at the facility as currently configured.
Martin Pochtaruk, the president of the Canadian solar energy company, told the paper it would immediately “improve the pace of the line.” Heliene, whose Mountain Iron workforce has already climbed from about 40 to 92, expects to add 15 more workers after the automated line is up and running.
The company, which secured $3.5 million in state loans to establish the facility last year, is also waiting on a loan from the state Department of Employment and Economic Development to upgrade its ventilation system, the paper reports.
