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Photovoltaic panels manufactured at Federal Penitentiary

18 Nov 09 | Commentary, Solar Electric

I had a very interesting conversation with a gentleman from the Department of Justice the other day. He was describing to me how the inmates at Otisville Federal Corrections Institute manufactured 24 MW of PV panels last year.  These panels cannot be sold to the general public for private use, however, they can be transferred to other branches of the government for installation at federal buildings and facilities.

In 2010, the Federal Correction Institute, Sheridan, Oregon is coming on line with a 50 MW/year PV panel manufacturing facility.  What this all means is there will likely be several large PV arrays coming on line at various federal facilities, such as penitentiaries, national parks, military bases, office buildings and the like.  There are several positives to this:

  1. It gives the inmates a marketable manufacturing skill which will be needed as more companies seek to manufacture PV products.
  2. Inmates are being productive.
  3. The government gets inexpensive PV panels for installation on its facilities.
  4. The money spent manufacturing PV panels is offset by the savings in electrical energy since the panels stay within the federal government system.
  5. It stimulates the economy because the balance of system components are still supplied from outside non-government sources.
  6. It reduces the overall energy consumption in the US, which is good for many reasons; lowers pollution, fosters energy independence, enhances national security, etc.

This is a smart use of taxpayer dollars.

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18 Nov 09 | Commentary, Solar Electric
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Reader's Comments

  1. Eric | November 21st, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    I have seen an RFP form the DOJ for cell procurement for one of these inmate projects. I look at differently. Federal facilities are a huge market for domestic panel manufacturers. Each branch of the govt now has mandatory amounts of energy they must produce by certain deadlines. Before this scheme, the feds would have to procure “made in america” panels to have installed on their facilities. Manufacturing plants here in the states supply those modules=good business for the plants. NOW, if the feds use “prisoner” labor, the business does not benefit the market as much.

    Also, a lot of the institutions are PRIVATELY run. Huge conflict of interest and anti-trust issues when a PRIVATE business can compete in the market using prisoner labor.

    But…no issue has clear cut lines. Overall, fossil fuel emissions will be lowered, and more PV brought online faster and cheaper.

    Thx for the great blog.

    Eric

  2. Paul | November 21st, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    Eric,

    Every story has two sides. I agree with you that federal facilities are great potential customers for commercial domestically made PV panels. However, the tax payer foots the bill on that cost no matter who makes the panels, certainly you would agree that the inmate manufactured panels would be less expensive for the tax payers. Also, it would seem that the inmate made panels may not be enough to cover the demand from federal installations, so they would procure from the private sector.

    I hear you about privately run institutions and conflicts of interest. As you said, no issue has clear cut lines.

    Anyway, it is always nice to hear from somebody knowledgeable.



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