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Xtreme Power of Austin,Texas and Clairvoyant Energy of Santa Barbara, Calif., reportedly will pay $725 million for the former auto plant in Wixom, Mich. The plan is to use about half of the 4.7 million square feet to manufacture battery-based energy storage systems and high efficiency solar panels. The new owners hope to find other green companies to fill the remaining space.

In its heyday, the Wixom plant employed about 5,000 auto workers and produced about 6.6 million cars over more than five decades. The workforce had dwindled to about 1,000 before the the facility shut down in 2007. It has been maintained by a skeleton crew ever since.

“The Wixom Assembly Plant served Ford well for half a century and we wanted to ensure it served Michigan well into the future,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “Thanks to the collaborative efforts of two visionary energy companies and the leadership of state and local officials, we are transforming our Wixom facility into one of the largest renewable energy parks in the United States. I can’t imagine a better way to use this facility – for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.”

New ownership expects to begin refitting the plant in the first quarter of 2010, with full operations targeted for late 2011. In time, the project could provide up to 4,000 new jobs in the area, not including positions created indirectly.

State and local tax credits and incentives helped facilitate the deal. Gov. Jennifer Granholm insists the money will be well spent.

“It’s a great example of the Phoenix rising from the ashes, and it’s all part of our strategic plan to diversity Michigan’s economy,” she said.

Clairvoyant Energy already has announced plans to build up to 2.5 million solar panels a year at the Wixom site. That output alone, the company says, could replace the need for one large coal-fired power plant.

The plant could eventually employ more than 4,000 workers. Michigan lawmakers dropped the bar on the numbers of new jobs needed to trigger the $100 million in tax incentives from 2,000 to 500, partly because other states were more generous in their bidding, according to a Ford Motor Land Development executive.

Carlos Coe, Xtreme's CEO, told the paper he was confident the company would create more than 2,000 jobs.

But the article lists plenty of examples of how green-energy firms are having to make layoffs or are missing hiring targets.

In Michigan, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy think tank recently concluded that the state's tax incentive program generated just a third of the jobs they were intended to produce.

Clairvoyant Energy will manufacture solar panels in the plant, while Xtreme Power will make turnkey power systems for wind and solar projects. Clairvoyant Energy will have the capacity to produce over 2.5 million panels a year in the Wixom plant. When the redevelopment is completed, the plant will be one of the largest renewable energy manufacturing parks in the U.S., according to a press release.

Ford closed the Wixom plant in 2007 after 50 years, which manufactured 6.6 million vehicles. When it closed, the plant employed approximately 1,000 workers. As a renewable energy manufacturing plant, it is expected to create over 4,000 jobs, and 10,000 indirect jobs through suppliers.

Clairvoyant and Xtreme will spend $725 to redevelop the plant. The companies will only use half of the plant’s 4.7 million square feet, and will lease the remaining space to other renewable energy manufacturers.

Ford worked with state and local officials, plus the renewable energy companies, for nine months. State and local incentives for renewable energy manufacturers were a key reason why the two companies decided to buy the Wixom plant. According to the president and CEO of Xtreme, Carlos Coe, Michigan beat 14 other states to get the project.

“This move is significant on both ends of the spectrum. It underscores a significant shift toward the accelerated commercialization and adoption of strategic renewable energy technologies, due in large part to the deepened commitment on the part of local, state and federal policymakers to support companies like ours,” said Coe.

The plant is near a rail line and the interstate, which is good for Clairvoyant, as the CEO, David Hardee pointed out. “This plant is ideal for us because the biggest component of solar manufacturing is glass, it’s heavy, it’s bulky. We need rail, we need I-96 access.”

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm said, “This is a symbolic but real statement of Michigan’s transformation. We will diversify this economy.”

“The Wixom Assembly Plant served Ford well for half a century and we wanted to ensure it served Michigan well into the future,” said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford. “Thanks to the collaborative efforts of two visionary energy companies and the leadership of state and local officials, we are transforming our Wixom facility into one of the largest renewable energy parks in the United States.”

The 42 acre Ford plant will begin it's transition to a complete renewable energy park that should re-open its doors in 2011. The renewable energy park, once completed, will create equipment for wind and solar projects, and will also host a training center to inform individuals interested in working in the renewable energy sector. As part of the project, Clairvoyant Energy will be launching a thin-film solar factory; the first in the US built using Oerlikon Equipment that will be created by the green Swiss company. The build will use Oerlikon Solar Equipment, and the project will win as soon as appropriate funding has been obtained.

Since the failing auto-industry has put so many people out of jobs, the renewable energy park is hoping to bring much needed employment opportunity back to Wixom, Michigan, where it's desperately needed since Michigan is the state with the highest unemployment rate today. Once the project is complete, some 1,000 local manufacturing industry employees should have the opportunity to work at the renewable energy plant; with 300 added when it opens in 2011 and another 700 within the first year of its launch.

David Hardee, chief executive officer of solar panel-maker Clairvoyant Energy, said the development would make Michigan “the Silicon Valley of renewable energy.”

State lawmakers were putting final touches Thursday on tax breaks to make it happen.

“I can’t imagine a better way to use this facility for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren,” Ford, said, beaming inside the former assembly plant.

Granholm said the conversion of the Wixom plant is “symbolic of the Michigan that we are to become.”

More than 4,000 jobs are expected to be created eventually. Oerlikon Solar plans to join Clairvoyant in the solar panel production, while Xtreme Power is to build storage batteries.

The defunct Ford Motor Co. Wixom assembly plant has a lot of space -- 4 million square feet -- and a lot of suitors to make it something else.

One developer proposed a shopping center.

There were "a bunch of crazy ones," too, like a plan to build a large amusement park, said Phil Horlock, chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Land Development Corp., which is selling the 320-acre site.

Not a suitable use, Horlock said. Amusement parks operate a few months a year with generally low-paying jobs.

"The guy even said to me, 'We can employ college students,' " Horlock said. "Clearly, it wasn't the right thing."

The right thing for the automaker is a $725-million project to turn the plant into the Renewable Energy Park. Clairvoyant Energy of California and its partner, Oerlikon Solar, based in Switzerland, are to build solar panels, while Xtreme Power of Texas is to make storage batteries.

The two operations are to use about half of the plant's space. Clairvoyant CEO David Hardee said the plant, close to I-96, has ready amenities, such as an industrial-strength power supply and easy access to transportation.

"Solar panels require a lot of glass, and Michigan is the glass capital of the U.S.," Hardee said, referring to the large glass-makers linked to the auto industry.

The project depends on obtaining state tax breaks and federal loans, which are in the pipeline, though not sealed.

The companies' top executives were joined by Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, and jubilant Wixom officials Thursday. The glitzy media event included a video of what the refurbished, 52-year-old plant would look like when it begins production in a couple years.

About 4,000 people will work in the plant, most for battery-maker Xtreme Power.

Ford called the project visionary, and said it conforms to Ford's corporate ethic of promoting sustainable energy.

"This was a plant that was sitting empty; this is a wonderful outcome for it. It's very much in line with our core values," Ford said.

He would not disclose the selling price of the plant.

Horlock said Ford has closed five assembly plants since 2005 and sold four of them, including Wixom.

Ford said a deal to create this many jobs is unusual.

Said Ford: "You don't see it very often, and we'd like to think that this could happen again. But frankly, there is a lot of hard work to make this happen."