A proposed solar panel manufacturing facility got a $5.1 million green light from the Iron Range Resources Board on Thursday.

The board approved loan requests from both project developer, Silicon Energy MN LLC and the Mt. Iron Economic Development Association to get the project off the ground. IRR will provide a $1.5 million loan to the company for equipment purchases and a $3.6 million loan to the Mt. Iron EDA to construct a 25,000 square foot facility for the operation. Total cost of the project is estimated at $6.85 million.

Silicon Energy plans to manufacture photovoltaic solar panels. At start up, scheduled for March of 2011, the operation would employ 15 people. Five to seven more employees could be added as production increases.

Minnesota legislation paved the way for the new manufacturing facility. Sponsored by Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL - Virginia and Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL - Chisholm, the legislation provides $21 million tax rebates to individuals and some businesses that install the panels. Currently, the rebate is only available to Xcel customers in the metropolitan area - the company's target market.

John Carroll, vice president of Newport Partners, the company's parent corp., said the project "is going to create a lot of jobs," including construction workers needed to install the panels.

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