JinkoSolar looking to set up in Jacksonville, but smaller than first planned

A major player in the solar industry is poised to set up in Jacksonville, but with a much smaller footprint than first planned.

Action News Jax radio station, WOKV, first told you earlier this year that the City of Jacksonville had negotiated an incentives package with a company identified only as "Project Volt", which would bring 800 jobs to the First Coast and see the company invest $410 million in leasing, improving, and equipping two sites in Jacksonville to support their operations. In exchange, the City committed to up to $24.6 million in incentives, with the state on the hook for more than $29.3 million.

WOKV has now confirmed with the City that "Project Volt" was JinkoSolar. While that deal cleared the City Council, it has not yet been executed, and a newly filed bill in front of the Council would repeal the Economic Development Agreement outright.

Instead, a new deal has been put forward that would see JinkoSolar- who is now named in the bill documents- to creating 200 jobs and investing $50,500,000 in one facility, in a little under two years. This would commit the City to up to $3.4 million in incentives, and the state to $800,000.

We asked the City of Jacksonville what changed to lead to the smaller deal, and they said it was a company decision.

The City’s incentives come in two forms. Some is through the Qualified Targeted Industry Tax Refund program. This would make JinkoSolar eligible for $5,000 per job, as verified by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The City would pay $200,000 of that total, and the state match is $800,000. The bulk of the incentives are a Recaptured Enhanced Value grant, which gives JinkoSolar back a share of its increased property tax payout. This would cost the City up to $3.2 million over ten years.

JinkoSolar plans to assemble and distribute solar panel products in Jacksonville, and the economic development documents say they’ve already executed a lease at the Cecil Commerce Center on New World Avenue. They also intend to use JAXPORT to import and export solar panel components sourced from China, among other things, which could have a positive impact on the port as well as in logistics industries like trucking.

The new EDA could face a vote in the City Council in about a month, while the repeal of the original “Project Volt” EDA is slated for about six weeks down the road.

If approved, the economic development documents say JinkoSolar would start installing new equipment and renovating at the end of June, with completion at the end of 2019. 100 jobs would be created each of the next two years.

Cox Media Group