Catch up on current developments in Oregon business.
Gallery: Baldock Solar Highway project close to completion
The Baldock Solar Highway project, launched in August and billed as the nation’s largest, is taking shape near Wilsonville along Interstate 5. The project, a 1.75 megawatt array, is a joint effort between the Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland General Electric. View photo gallery on the Sustainable Business Oregon website.
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Announcing Fortune’s newest property in Hillsboro, Oregon!
Watch the video of Dave Smith talking about Fortune’s new data center in Oregon. The phase 1 development at Fortune Oregon 1 provides 7.8 MW of concurrently maintainable critical load.
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Hillsboro’s data center surge
Within a matter of weeks, plans for three major data centers — which include Fortune Data Centers, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc — along Hillsboro’s tech-centric Evergreen Parkway have emerged, representing hundreds of millions in new investment and several hundred construction jobs. Those projects are in addition to a 41,000-square-foot building acquired earlier this year in Hillsboro by Umpqua Holding Cos., the Portland-based holding company of Umpqua Bank. Read more in the Portland Business Journal.
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Galena Biopharma exits Boston for Lake Oswego
Worcester, Mass.-based RXi Pharmaceuticals has split-off its cancer therapies division into a new publicly traded company based in Lake Oswego. Read more in the Portland Business Journal.
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DOE Grant Award Announcements
Projects to support community planning for plug-in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure will receive $8.5 million through DOE’s Clean Cities initiative to facilitate local public-private partnerships that will develop EV deployment strategies. Read more on the DOE website.
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Oregon scores more federal EV cash
The Oregon Business Development Department snagged $485,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy last week, money to go toward a plan to put 30,000 plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015. The funding comes from the DOE’s Clean Cities initiative which targets communities with planning experience in electric vehicle development — or those eager to begin — for one-year projects to knock down roadblocks and create strategies for putting more electric vehicles on the road, striving to meet national goals. Read more on the Sustainable Business Oregon website.
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Oregon campus creates ’Electric Avenue’ of charging stations
Portland State University in Oregon has created its own Electric Avenue, a two-year research and development project, features seven EV charging stations from six manufacturers, including a quick-charge station. Students and visitors can plug in and charge electric cars, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles.
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Nation’s largest solar highway breaks ground at Baldock Safety Rest near Portland
Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez congratulated Oregon for its leadership in sustainable transportation as Portland General Electric and the Oregon Department of Transportation broke ground today on the nation’s largest solar highway project. The $10 million project will include an interpretive display and will generate up to 1.97 million kilowatt-hours per year of renewable energy.
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Oregon breaks ground on nation’s largest solar highway project
Portland General Electric and the Oregon Department of Transportation broke ground Tuesday on what’s billed as the nation’s largest solar highway project. The 1.75 megawatt solar array, which will be installed adjacent to the rest area on Interstate 5 northbound near Wilsonville, is expected to generate 1.97 million kilowatt hours of energy per year — enough to satisfy about 9 percent of what ODOT typically purchases from PGE. Read more on the Sustainable Business Oregon website.
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SoloPower leases 225,250 square feet in North Portland
SoloPower Inc. will lease a 225,250-square-foot building in North Portland’s Rivergate Industrial District for a planned $340 million thin-film solar module plant.
At the Portland site, SoloPower will receive $14 million in state tax credits, a $20 million state energy loan and an estimated $16.5 million in tax abatements for locating in the Rivergate Industrial District, a designated “enterprise zone.” Learn more.
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Kitzhaber airs plan for 10-year energy strategy for Oregon
Gov. John Kitzhaber said Wednesday that it’s time for Oregon to develop a 10-year strategy for energy as a way to provide clear direction for energy policies and incentives. Kitzhaber said that he will elevate energy policy and a movement toward a clean energy economy as one of several priorities in his administration. Read more on the Sustainable Business Oregon website.
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SoloPower announces new solar panel manufacturing facility in Oregon
SoloPower, Inc., a California-based manufacturer of flexible, thin film solar cells and modules, announces it will locate a high volume manufacturing facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. The initial phase of this expansion will be the construction of a 75 MW manufacturing line which will create 170 new jobs. Upon completion, the facility is expected to have nameplate capacity of 300MW, employ approximately 500 people, and have a total investment of approximately $340 Million.
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Eaton Taps Wilsonville as Key Site for Electric Vehicle Quick Charger
Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation announced today that it has chosen its Wilsonville, Oregon, satellite power center as a lead facility to modify and integrate its Electric Vehicle DC quick charger for the North American market. With this commitment, Oregon continues to establish itself as a leader in the emerging electric vehicle market, and Eaton further underscores its commitment to the Pacific Northwest region and the California market. Read more in Business Wire.
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Business Week: Cover Story: Electric Cars Get Charged for Battle
Most of the drivers on the 101 Freeway in Marin County, Calif., on this foggy December morning are oblivious to the black snub-nosed car gliding along beside them. Every so often, however, someone does a double take, gives a thumbs-up, or snaps a cell phone picture, because the car in the next lane is one they’ve never seen before: a Nissan Leaf, the world’s first affordable, mass-produced electric vehicle, or EV. Read more in Businessweek.
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OPB covers the electric vehicle rollout in the Pacific Northwest
The West Coast is about to take part in the biggest rollout of electric cars and charging stations in the world. The Department of Energy awarded a Phoenix company $100 million to build electric vehicle charging networks in five states. Washington, Oregon and California are among those states. Read more on OPB.
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Japanese company to build solar crucible plant
Ferrotec will open a Portland-area plant in mid-2010 and will be producing quartz crucibles to support Oregon’s established and rapidly growing solar manufacturing. Read more in Portland Business Journal.
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Business news archive
See our news archive for previously published business news releases.