By Vahid Ghassemian, Amonix SVP of Manufacturing Operations

A week ago today, Amonix broke ground on a new 214,000 square foot solar manufacturing facility located in the City of North Las Vegas. The first phase will begin operation in the first quarter of 2011 and when fully up and running, the facility will employ 278 area residents in management, production and technical jobs.

For a city such as North City Las Vegas – with an unemployment rate of 15% – the importance of these green energy jobs to the local community cannot be overestimated. According to the Nevada Development Authority, the Amonix plant will contribute $118 million in payroll and $12 million in taxes to the local economy in its first five years – and there is a 10-year lease on the facility. It’s not hard to see why this project has captured the minds and hearts of city leadership and its citizens, and the attention of the national media.

Nevada is arguably the nation’s leader in solar energy. It certainly has a lot of the essential elements needed for solar powered electricity – sunlight. But there is something else Nevada has. And that’s a commitment to take advantage of its leadership in solar to create jobs and economic opportunity for the people who live there.

And to the skeptics who say that green jobs aren’t real jobs, consider this: According to the first-ever National Solar Jobs Census, conducted by The Solar Foundation, Green LMI, Cornell University and others, in 2010, the solar industry created 50,000 jobs and in total there are now 93,000 people employed in the solar industry in America. For a copy of the report, visit The Solar Foundation website at http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/.

I’m proud to say that over the next 12 months, Amonix will add nearly 300 jobs to that growing number in just our new manufacturing facility in Nevada and other jobs elsewhere.

For more information about the groundbreaking effort and the facility, visit the Amonix website at http://www.amonix.com/pressreleases/solar-leader-amonix-breaks-ground-manufacturing-facility-north-las-vegas-bringing-278-.