January 8: Kaptur Welcomes Announcement of $34.5 Million in Federal Tax Credits to Xunlight Corp.

Xunlight will receive $34.5 million in tax credits while First Solar will receive $16.32 million in credits. A total of $2.3 billion in Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits were announced by President Obama at the White House. Of the 183 projects, seven were located in Ohio, including Circleville (Du Pont), Bedford (Cardinal Fasteners and Specialists), Findlay (Dow Chemical), Bucyrus (General Electric Lighting), and Dayton (AcuTemp).



“This is another red-letter day--or perhaps I should say 'green-letter' day--for our region,” said Congresswoman Kaptur. “All our efforts to build a clean energy sector in our local economy and create good new jobs are paying off big time.”

"This will help us ramp up our manufacturing process to reach the 100 megawatt production scale," said Dr. Xunming Deng, founder and chief executive officer of Xunlight. "This will allow us to expand our operations from the current level of 100 employees and create hundreds of high-paying jobs in Northwest Ohio."

The tax credits, which were contained in the Recovery Act legislation that Congress passed last year, focus on putting Americans back to work in a robust renewable energy sector with American-made parts and equipment. The credits also bring closer the President's goal of doubling the amount of renewable energy the country uses in the next three years with domestically-manufactured wind turbines and solar panels.

“Building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future,” said President Obama, who said the awards “will help close the clean energy gap that has grown between America and other nations while creating good jobs, reducing our carbon emissions and increasing our energy security.”

The investment tax credits, worth up to 30 percent of each planned project, will leverage private capital for a total investment of nearly $7.7 billion in high-tech manufacturing. The projects announced today address the broad spectrum of manufacturing capabilities needed to support a robust clean energy economy.