Ford's decision to sell its Wixom manufacturing plant will result in one of the nation's largest renewable energy manufacturing complexes.
Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, and Clairvoyant Energy of Santa Barbara, Calif., are buying the Michigan site with the intent to manufacture energy storage systems and high-efficiency solar panels.
The manufacturing facility was previously idled.
Clairvoyant Energy and Xtreme Power plan to spend $725 million to redevelop the 320-acre site and its 4.7 million square feet of plant space, according to a press release.
The two companies will use about half of the space to manufacture their own products. They are seeking to lease the remaining space to other green-energy manufacturers.
Redevelopment of the Wixom site is expected to begin early next year with manufacturing slated to begin in late 2011.
For the past nine months, Ford has been working with state and local officials, as well as Clairvoyant Energy and Xtreme Power, to put the plan in motion.
In its heyday, the 52-year old Wixom plant produced vehicles including the Thunderbird, GT and the Lincoln Continental.
Xtreme Power plans to use its portion of the plant to produce turnkey power systems for wind and solar projects.
Clairvoyant Energy will use its portion of the site to build solar panels.
