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Solar Plant To Bring Hundreds Of Jobs To Colorado

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- Hundreds of new jobs are on their way to Colorado with GE's new solar plant opening in the Denver metro area.

The plant will open in the Majestic Commerce Center near Interstate 70 and Tower Road in Aurora. The factory is expected to be up and running in 2012.

A $28 million incentive deal from Aurora, Adams County and Colorado helped seal the deal.

"General Electric's plan to build the largest solar factory in the country, let me tell you, that solar factory is going to be built in Aurora, Colorado," said Gov. John Hickenlooper.

GE said it was a big challenge finding a building and location to make the deal work.

"The size of this facility is over 11 football fields in size. So this is a big manufacturing facility and each year the panels that come out of this factory will be enough power to power 80,000 homes," said GE Renewables Vice President Vic Abate.

The plant will employ about 355 people and build panels developed by PrimeStar Solar.

"This is something that will lead to other jobs, other companies are going to want to be around them, this is like planting a seed and it will enrich the entire metropolitan area," said Hickenlooper.

GE considered 10 states for the plant. In the end, it was Colorado or New York. Colorado's advantage was the big GE Research and Development plant already conducting solar work in Arvada.

"Today, globally 25 percent of all electricity that is generated on this planet comes off GE technology," said Abate.

"This is going to be the most successful solar manufacturing facility on earth," said Hickenlooper.

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