Travis County shoots down HelioVolt incentives
Source: Austin Business Journal / October 31, 2007
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/10/29/daily20.html
Travis County commissioners on Tuesday night declined an economic incentives package designed to attract HelioVolt Corp.’s proposed $80 million manufacturing plant. County Judge Sam Biscoe’s motion to grant county tax subsidies died for lack of a second motion. Biscoe proposed the county give annual grants equal to 40 percent in property tax abatements for 10 years, provided HelioVolt reaches investment and employment targets. Travis County was expected to match the city offer of 60 percent for 10 years.
Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt says that HelioVolt didn’t meet the threshold for the county’s policy, which requires the creation of 500 jobs in one year and a $100 million capital investment. The proposed investment must “be the kind of sink anchors in the ground kind of investment,” says Eckhardt. Since HelioVolt’s plan was to lease, not own the property of its proposed plant, that factor worked against them, says Eckhardt.
HelioVolt’s proposal “wasn’t of the scale the county policy contemplates,” says Eckhardt. She added the county has a “one size fits all” policy and does not have a rigorous cost-benefit analysis like the city. The county’s action was what was needed to move forward and finalize incentive details at the state level, said Jose Beceiro, director of clean energy economic development at the Chamber. HelioVolt has applied for a grant from the State of Texas’ $300 million Texas Enterprise Fund.
Austin-based HelioVolt was already poised to lease a 122,400-square-foot Expo 8 building that Trammell Crow Co. recently completed at Expo Business Park near Montopolis Drive and Burleson Road. CEO BJ Stanbery has pledged to create more than 150 jobs. In August, HelioVolt received $77 million in private funding, one of the largest venture deals in Austin history, according to City Councilmember Brewster McCracken.
HelioVolt is a producer of photovoltaic, or solar, cells and modules using copper-indium-gallium-selenide technology, an alternative to silicon. CIGS is far cheaper to manufacture and install than silicon — important because the cost-benefit ratio for solar power has been unattractive for many potential users.