A leading solar manufacturing company will construct a cutting-edge facility on the Gold Coast, regardless of recent floods and following investment from the Queensland Government.
The facility could be the first of this kind in Australia and is set to create hundreds of new jobs, Treasurer and Minister for Employment and Economic Development Andrew Fraser said.
"Regardless of what mother nature has thrown at us, Queensland remains an attractive place for investment," Fraser said.
"With the support of the Queensland Investment Incentive Scheme, solar manufacturing company Eco-Kinetics will build a new facility to assemble photovoltaic modules and manufactured mounting kits south of Brisbane.
"It will be constructed at their Queensland headquarters in Staplyton, where they already employ 33 people and expects to be up and running in April.This is an investment that will see real jobs growth, with 244 full-time jobs expected to be created between now and 2015."
Member for Albert Margaret Keech said this would be a boost for local industry.
"This is a great outcome for my local area," Keech said."This investment will create local jobs and boost the local economy.I look forward to working with Eco-Kinetics as they embark on an exciting new project for our region."
Fraser said the reasons why the Bligh Government had undertaken an investment such as this were clear.
"The Bligh Government has a clear interest in supporting alternative energy industries. This Government has long supported solar as a critical power source of the present and the future,” he said."We are investing in new industries and helping create new jobs across the state just as we said we would."
The Queensland Government has supported eco-Kinetics investment through the Queensland Investment Incentive Scheme. Details of the Government’s investment will be released in eight years, in line with the long established guidelines under which the QIIS was created.
Image courtesy of SolarEnergyFact.org