Heliovolt Corp., Austin’s very only CIGS company which has now raised over $109 million in venture funding,  has announced that it will be building a 20-megawatt factory here in Austin.  Considering that the Austin City Council recently approved an incentive package worth $600,000 to get Heliovolt to build here, we were surprised that the announcement took this long.   However, it appears that not everyone was excited about the prospects of a new factory which will employ 150 people.  Apparently, the Travis County commissioners recently rejected county tax abatements for
HelioVolt, citing that the proposed plant did not create enough jobs to warrant such subsidies.  Fortunately, the company elected to choose Austin nonetheless.  The plant will be built at the Expo Business Park, a new development in Southeast Austin near Austin-Bergstom International Airport, and should have have panels in production by 2008.