Area Development
Suniva, a silicon solar cell maker, is getting a $141 million dollar grant to build its second facility in Saginaw County, Michigan.

The project is expected to create 500 new direct jobs at Suniva and 2,000 indirect jobs for the local economy.

The money is coming from the U.S. Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program under the DOE's Innovative Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Advanced Transmission and Distribution Technologies Solicitation.

"The DOE's acceptance of Suniva into the Loan Guarantee Program is very timely and supports the shared vision of President Obama and Suniva in significantly increasing the level of exports over the next five years," said John Baumstark, chairman and CEO of Suniva, in a press statement.

"The loan guarantee is essential to our efforts in building a second manufacturing plant in Michigan as quickly as possible, creating new cleanses jobs for Americans and supporting the economy by substantially increasing the number of solar cells and modules available for export."

Suniva says the loan will let the company more than triple exports over the next five years.

Last year, Suniva exported more than 90 percent of its products to Asia and Europe.