Originally posted at oregonlive.com
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State economic officials are racing to match the Hynix Semiconductor plant, which will wipe out 1,400 jobs in Eugene when it closes, with one of several companies considering solar manufacturing in Oregon.

A day after learning the plant would shut in the next two months, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and his economic-development team were scrambling Thursday to help breathe new life into the 1 million-square-foot building. Big solar companies are already shortlisting Oregon for factory sites, and a Lake Oswego investor said Thursday that he might steer two more such manufacturing ventures to the state.

If Hynix managers or new owners do want to transform the Eugene semiconductor plant into a solar-cell maker -- as SolarWorld is doing with a Hillsboro chip factory -- they need look no farther than Portland for world-class expertise. That's where CH2M Hill, a global engineering firm founded in Corvallis, bases its electronic and advanced-technology division.

"What we generally find is, it works, it can be done," said Dick Harbert, senior director of CH2M Hill's solar photovoltaic program.

In short, if the plant had to close, now may be a promising time for its reincarnation.

Yet business and technical uncertainties abound. Unemployed chip workers are far more likely to find an immediate job at SolarWorld -- which still has 130 openings -- than to produce solar cells anytime soon in a retrofitted Hynix plant.

The chairman of South Korea's Hynix, which is closing the plant to make larger silicon wafers elsewhere, told Kulongoski his company might work with two other firms to convert the factory into something else -- he didn't say what, said Tim McCabe, director of the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.

"So there is a ray of hope in this whole process," Kulongoski told reporters Thursday.

Hynix executives said they also are considering selling the equipped plant to another chipmaker. Or they might sell the building and relocate the equipment.

In Seoul, a Hynix spokesman declined to say Thursday whether the company would consider a solar conversion.

Once the disposing plan is confirmed," Park Seong-ae said, "we will announce it to the public."

State pushing for solar

McCabe's agency is negotiating behind the scenes with solar companies that could bring thousands of jobs to the state. He likes the idea of switching the Hynix plant to solar, most likely using so-called thin-film technology being developed as an alternative to crystalline-silicon cells. His investment recruiters plan to spread word of the possibility.

"You'd just take out the semiconductor equipment and you'd install this," said McCabe, who acknowledged a solar plant might not hire as many workers. "They've got all the necessary permits down there for the gases that are used in chip manufacturing and that are also used in the thin-film technology. And they're the perfect work force."

But solar managers say the switch may not be quite that easy.

Semiconductor plants have sophisticated clean rooms that filter out almost all dust particles, while solar plants are more like warehouses with tightly regulated temperature and humidity controls, said Andrew Wilson, chief executive of SpectraWatt, an Intel spinoff about to build a Hillsboro solar factory.

Top-class clean rooms, which can't be easily ripped out, are an unnecessary expense for solar manufacturers, he said. "It's like you're raising mice, but you have to feed the elephant," Wilson said.

CH2M Hill's Harbert said his team members would need to examine the Hynix chip plant to determine what might work.

"We're looking at one over in Italy right now," Harbert said. "They're considering two different thin-film lines."

Deals in the works

Thin-film technology is the focus of a couple of companies eyeing Oregon, along with competing locations, for solar plants, said Lake Oswego investor Mark Waller, president and founder of BridgeWorks Capital.

Negotiations are under way, Waller said, with announcements possible in a couple of weeks on the projects, which are separate from three solar companies previously reported to be considering Oregon for plants.

The solar boom's timing tantalizes Eugene-area officials but won't immediately help workers, said Mike McKenzie-Bahr, Lane County community and economic development coordinator.

"The only thing that would help in the short term is if somebody stepped in with the same use within the next 60 to 90 days," McKenzie-Bahr said.

Longer term, he said, Lane County stands ready to offer work-force training dollars and other assistance, in addition to state tax credits and other incentives, to a solar company or other operator.

Managers at SolarWorld, the German company completing conversion of a Hillsboro plant built for chip production but never used, are interested in Hynix's workers.

"They should have compatible skills," said Bob Beisner, SolarWorld vice president in Hillsboro. His company has hired 180 workers so far for the factory's first phase.

Yet solar wages won't likely equal chip salaries. The average Hynix worker in Eugene makes $52,000 a year, said Bobby Lee, a company spokesman.

An equivalent SolarWorld figure isn't available. But, the company said, a line worker at the Hillsboro plant can expect to make between $30,000 and $45,000 a year. Richard Read: 503-294-5135; richread@aol.com Staff writer Dylan Rivera contributed to this report.

Originally posted at oregonlive.com
Read the original post here