Wit Ventures: Ubiquity Solar Pilot Plant May Bring 500 Jobs to Sarnia-Lambton.

Thursday 16 February 2017

Ubiquity Solar Pilot Plant May Bring 500 Jobs to Sarnia-Lambton.

Photo by Zach Neal.

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer

Ubiquity Solar announced this week it is moving forward with plans for a $10.3-million pilot plant project at the TransAlta Bluewater Energy Park in Sarnia.

CEO Ian MacLellan said the pilot plant is the next step in the commercialization of Ubiquity Solar's technology to manufacture polysilicon bricks and wafers for use in photovoltaic cells for the solar energy industry.

"We have just a great team in place, and we're really excited to get moving forward here," he said.

The company expects to have approximately 15 staff involved in the pilot plant, with 10 located in Sarnia in an existing building on the TransAlta site on Vidal Street South.

The long-term plan for the company is to build a commercial production plant, also expected to be located at the TransAlta site, with a workforce that could grow to 500 jobs after five years.

MacLellan spoke in 2013 about the Ontario company's plans during a Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership event in Sarnia, and federally-funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada announced $3.1 million in funding in June 2014 for the pilot plant.

Link to the rest here.

Zach Neal.

Additional Coverage:

Lee Michaels, Blackburn News

It could set the groundwork for a new manufacturing facility in Sarnia that could employ up to 500 people.

Ubiquity Solar has received a $500,000 investment from Sarnia-based Bioindustrial Innovation Canada’s Sustainable Chemistry Alliance Investment Fund to establish a $10.3-million pilot plant at TransAlta’s Bluewater Energy Park in Sarnia.

Ubiquity Solar has developed a process to produce high-purity silicon at a lower cost than traditional technologies that can be used in both the electronic and PV industries.

“The target that we’ve set is to build a 10,000 ton plant in Sarnia that would produce enough material to produce four gigawatts of solar panels a year, 50 times more than are at the Sarnia Solar Farm” says Ubiquity President and CEO Ian MacLellan.

Link to the rest here.

Note to the above image, taken of the Sarnia Solar Plant already in existence. (Wiki.)

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Shirley D. Neal

Shirley has over 30 years of experience in such diverse businesses as financial planning, manufacturing, and supply. Her education includes a B.A., B.ED., M.ED., C.F.P., N.L.P. and the home inspector’s course as well as having her AZ license for five years. Her family home has given her and her husband the opportunity to do extensive renovation and repairs thereby increasing the value about $100,000 in ten years. She has been able to see firsthand how much a sensible and cost efficient renovations can add to the value of a home. Shirley has chosen joint ventures because she thinks that her experiences an help others achieve their goals and maximize the profits for both parties. In 1979, Shirley became involved in a small group of women who started a metal manufacturing company making small deep drawn metal parts for the automobile companies in Windsor. They took the company from start up to over $400,000 in sales in five years. That was a lot of parts since the parts sold for only five cents per each. In 1985 they sold the company to one of their customers. Whether it was selling mutual funds, teaching foster parents how to recruit foster parents, or working for Tony Robbins, Shirley has put more than 100 percent into every endeavour she was involved in.