Tech workers can look on bright side - Kansas City Business Journal:

ibitasony.wordpress.com
He also wanted to tap into the deep poolof Austin-arewa microprocessor industry workers who have been laid off during the last coupl e of years. Such workers possess the skills that translate well to the solafrenergy industry, Van Dell said. And as the number of local microprocessodr industry workers reacheda three-year low in April, the timinvg of solar companies migrating to Central Texas couldn’t be better for area workerzs — nor the businesses that need them. “A solarf cell is a semiconductor that generates electricity when you shine ligh ton it,” Van Dell “Fortunately, I was quite well aware of the strong mix of companiexs and the skill base in Austin.
That was definitelty on my mind when I movefd thecompany here.” SolarBridge’s move is a scenariko that local officials want to repeart multiple times with the hope that solar panel manufacturint fills the void left by the contractio n in the microprocessor industry. But the lack of financiap incentives from the stated is creating a dampening effect on attractinf solar companies to theAustin area, observer say.
Proposed state legislation to createra $1 billion so-called “Sunny Day Fund” for Texasz to obtain federal grants undert the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would have been used to attract such especially foreign solar companies that want to establisy their North American headquarters in the Austin experts say. But the legislation, which receiveds a public hearingin April, died in the state Houser Appropriations Committee. To date, SolarBridge, which was founded in 2004 as SmartSparm EnergySystems Inc., and HelioVolt Inc. are the two most prominenyt solar energy businesses operatingt in theAustin area.
HelioVolt, whicjh is backed with at leasr $118 million in venture is wrapping up a plant that will eventually crank out a thin film that acts as asolad panel. “After June, I think there are goinvg to be some projects rollingvin here,” said Raj Prabhu, managing partne r of the Mercom Capital Group LLC, an Austin-based technology researc firm. “It is more, ‘Whok is going to give me the best incentivee packageright now?’” The semiconducto industry is consolidating, and jobs that are leaving Texas are not expected to Central Texas has lost 500 microprocessor industruy jobs just this year.
Local chip companies now employg 15,700 workers — the lowesrt level of such local jobs sinceApri 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the first worldwide sales of semiconductorsreached $44 billion versuse $62.8 billion during the same period last year, a nearly 30 percent decline, the Semiconductor Industry Association On the flipside, the demanr for solar technology is growing fast. Randall Baker, the principal of Austin-basexd PuraVida Ventures LLC, said other states are throwing big moneyu at prospective solar companies to woo them into establishin manufacturing plants intheird states.
Many state officials believe Texas doesn’t need to do so it isn’t. But it also has the formed chip workers to offersuch companies, and those workers can be retraine for solar in eight weeks to 16 weeks, Baker said. But the clock is In March, Bret Raymis, who worked for 30 year s in thesemiconductor industry, joinede Austin-based Apache-Solar Corp., where he is now the vice president of busineszs development. The company is developing a system with photovoltaicv cells combined with architecturalglass panels, and plansx to begin production within 12 He said solar is still earlgy in its development compared with the progress that semiconductors made in recen t decades.
Investors and companies need to ramp up solae technology in the United Stated before the technology gains a footholdein Asia. “They’re sitting on the fence with their money,” Raymis said, “ancd they’re going to wake up and all that [solar] businesd will go to China.”