A company looking to set up a first-of its-kind solar manufacturing plant in Thunder Bay has a large vision.
Energy North Bandcorp compares it's proposed 3,000 job integrated solar panel plant, that would see glass and panels created on the same site, to an open concept shop like Google.
Its process, company officials boast, would be like Henry Ford's vision in that it would assemble everything in the same place. A lot of the jobs would use so-called video-game-like controllers with furnaces -- the company estimates it would be the largest user of natural gas in the province -- would look like something out of Star Wars.
Perks for employees, the company spokespeople promise, would include free childcare and even something dubbed the "Sunpark Theatre and Entertainment Centre." Chairman Ross Beatty said the fact that the concept resembles the city's proposed event centre is a coincidence but giving back to the community would be important for Energy North Bancorp.
"That is the sort of community support that we provide. This is a very profitable business, very profitable and we don't want all of the money to go back to the investors. We want to put it back into the community," he said.
None of the money would come from public sources, Bandcorp officials promise. Government dollars are something many industry-sector projects, which both succeeded and failed in this area, rely on. Instead, Beatty suspects investors would come from sources like pension funds and wealthy individuals.
Beatty said the U.S. alone needs to see a 22 per cent growth in renewable energy every year and investors want to get in on that trend.
"We're not worried about the investment," he added.
In an hour-long presentation at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Tuesday, Beatty and partner Lee Judd outlined how its manufacturing process would compete with China.
It wasn’t the first time a company came to this area with thoughts of competing against China's manufacturing power. Global Sticks, a company that once promised to revitalize this area's forestry sector, had a similar pitch.
But that company would never be able to give Chinese manufactures serious competition as it closed down not too long after its grand opening. The shutdown also came after millions in government subsidies.
Beatty claims that unlike other industries, there's so much growth in potential renewable energy that his company won't need any government money.
"We're not asking for any money. We're not asking for any grants. We're not asking for anything," he said.
"We don't need government subsidies to grow and to go. The industry is in such a state of growth right now that it will self-finance."
Beatty's Solar Bancorp did see a plan to become Ontario's first solar panel manufacturing facility, with a $4 million facility from the city of Windsor, fail several years ago.
