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Genesee County Solar Cell Company Lands 5-Year Supply Agreement

A high-tech plant in Genesee County that will make components for solar cells has received a big boost.

The plant to be built by a company called 1366 Technologies hasn't even  been built yet, and they've just signed a contract to supply wafers used in solar cells to a South Korean company, Hanwha Q Cells.

Mark Peterson, the  President & CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise, says that contract will ensure the company will already be able to sell nearly half of everything they can manufacture at the Genesee County STAMP plant over the first five years of their operation.

Peterson says eventually, in about seven years, this plant will employ about a thousand people.

“This is the kind of transformational project that really is beyond even one region. This is really a partnership between Western New York, the Buffalo region and the Finger Lakes region , and if it wasn’t for that partnership together with our partners in Genesee County, it wouldn’t have been possible for this deal to even happen.”

The solar cell plant in the Genesee County Town of Alabama is expected to break ground this summer. Other companies are also being sought for that location 

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.