Colorado, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] More announcements about how the renewable energy industry plans to use the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit are emerging. ReflecTech Inc. this week said that it is set to receive a $750,000 credit, which it will use to expand its existing production facility.
The exact timing of the facility upgrade will depend on market factors, but must be finished within 4 years to receive the investment tax credit. When the facility is fully operational, it is expected to produce 10,000,000 ft² of mirror panels per year and employ 24 people.
The expansion will allow ReflecTech to increase the output and variety of its glass-free mirror panels for use in utility-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. The ReflecTech mirror panels will use ReflecTech Mirror Film, a silvered polymer film developed through DOE-supported research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) exclusively licensed to ReflecTech Inc.
The ReflecTech mirrors will be shatterproof and will match or exceed the optical and structural characteristics of glass mirrors at a lower cost, with proven durability, the company said.
Mirror panels made with ReflecTech Mirror Film installed seven years ago at Solar Energy Generating Station VI in the Mojave Desert, tested yearly, have maintained their high reflectance. Accelerated weather exposure testing of the film at the NREL and Arizona Desert Testing LLC shows no mechanical failures and no decrease in the reflectance of the film, even after the equivalent of 10 years of exposure.
“The tax credit makes this capital investment possible for us by absorbing some of the financial risk,” said Randy Gee, ReflecTech’s CTO. “It’s just what we need to get our glass-free mirrors in production for the clean energy economy”.
