“Our product, made in Mountain Iron, Minnesota, is the simplest renewable energy engine to such electrification,” Pochtaruk said last week at the new facility’s groundbreaking ceremony. meet new goals announced by President Joe Biden to produce half the nation’s electricity via solar energy by 2050. Martin Pochtaruk, Heliene’s president, said the company aims to help the U.S. is expected to be the second-largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the country once the new project is done.
Part of an effort to diversify a regional economy reliant on natural resources like wood and iron ore, the plant - run by Ontario-based Heliene, Inc. Minnesota lawmakers made headlines earlier this year when they approved a bundle of financial incentives to draw a timber product mill to the city of Cohasset in northern Minnesota.īut the Legislature, along with state and county officials, also threw down cash for another project aimed at economic development in northern Minnesota: The expansion of a plant in Mountain Iron - a city of 2,800 people between Virginia and Hibbing - that manufactures solar panels. Solar panel manufacturer Heliene, which currently employs about 75 people at its Mountain Iron facility, is planning a $21 million expansion, with state and local governments are chipping in millions for the project.