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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Radio-Controlled Street lighting producer, Global Green Lighting, Opens Chattanooga, Tennessee Plant

03/19/2013
A manufacturer of wireless radio controlled LED street light systems, Global Green Lighting, plans to hire as many as 250 employees at a newly established assembly facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The move will create jobs for Tennesseans by bringing subcontracted production back from China.

GGL recently acquired a 180,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Chattanooga and has set up production lines to assemble its flagship product, a light emitting diode street lamp combined with the latest automated metering infrastructure smart grid metering technology. EPB, Chattanooga’s municipally-owned power provider, has certified GGL’s outdoor lighting solution, making it the world’s only product of its kind that has been authenticated by an electric utility to deliver energy savings to the city in real-time. GGL’s expansion will immediately create 40 new jobs. By the end of 2013, GGL expects to hire 160 assembly workers. The company also expects to hire 50 people for sales, marketing, customer service and equipment maintenance.

“By marrying our locally designed and manufactured LED and Induction light fixtures with our innovative wireless radio control technology, we have created the world’s most advanced lighting and energy monitoring system,” said Don Lepard, the firm’s president and CEO. “In addition to certified, measured energy savings, and carbon credits, the GGL system offers countless improvements over traditional street lights – improved lighting quality and color, wireless monitoring to track exact energy usage, and situational functionality such as scheduled or manual override dimming or flashing. The adjustable ‘up light filters’ offer an optional elimination of light pollution. The system also self-reports the location and diagnostics for malfunctions within 15 seconds of the occurrence, and the expected life of these lights is five times longer than the old, traditional lights.”

“We are thrilled to execute our first community-wide street lighting project in our home city of Chattanooga,” Lepard said. “Following Chattanooga’s introduction of America’s first community-wide fiber optic network, the city has continued to raise its stature as a smart grid city and haven for innovation. Our state-of-the-art wireless radio controlled street lighting system offers an unparalleled combination of energy savings and functionality.”

“I want to congratulate GGL on this great announcement and say ‘thank you’ for their investment in Hamilton County and Tennessee,” Gov. Bill Haslam said. “Having a strong technology infrastructure and supporting a culture of innovation will help us continue to attract companies like GGL and reach our goal of becoming the No. 1 state in the Southeast for high quality jobs.”

“GGL is an excellent example of how innovation drives economic development,” Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty said. “We are focused on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, which will help grow Tennessee’s economy and give our state a distinct competitive advantage. Thank you to GGL for bringing these jobs to Hamilton County and for creating the technologies that have translated into economic opportunities for our citizens.”

“GGL has been designing and marketing lighting solutions from Chattanooga for many years,” said Charles Wood, vice president of economic development for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. “We were pleased to deploy our existing industry team to support him in growing his operations to include assembly and gear up for a major marketing push.”

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