Recently, President Barack Obama visited a solar panel manufacturing facility out of Fremont, CA to show manufacturing is still thriving in the state.

During his visit, he gave a speech under the bridge cranes installed by Allied Crane Inc. to tout the new solar manufacturing plant. Allied Crane built the 14 new single-girder bridge cranes, in their 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, and fabricated and installed 6,800 linear feet of runway beams to support the cranes. The bridge cranes were installed to facilitate in the manufacturing of new solar panels. Solyndra chose Allied as their crane supplier because the company had previously supplied 10 overhead bridge cranes and other assorted lifting equipment in Solyndra’s original plant.

Solyndra received Recovery Act funding. The direct benefits of this investment are easy to see. The plant expansion now underway has already enabled the creation of over 3,000 construction-related jobs and Solyndra estimates that the new factory could create as many as 1,000 long-term jobs in operations and supply. Likewise, a formerly empty field will soon be home to a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant that produces clean energy products that can be exported to the world.

The project is creating jobs around the country. Construction materials for the facility itself are being manufactured by workers in Arkansas, Washington, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and 18 other states. The advanced manufacturing equipment is being made by workers in Michigan, Tennessee, Colorado, and 8 other states. The raw materials to run the facility will come from 15 states including Wisconsin, Ohio, and Kentucky. When the first solar panels are shipped in late 2010, they will be delivered by freight companies and installed by even more new workers.