Every Solano family should have the chance to achieve the California Dream. This means having access to rewarding jobs right here in Solano County. Too many of us spend hours every day in super commutes to the Bay Area or Sacramento, instead of being with our families.
Today, we’re excited to announce two important updates on our goal to create 15,000 well-paid jobs in Solano County in the next decade: bringing new employers here, and directly creating hundreds of jobs in our solar energy business.
Bringing new employers to Solano County
We’re committed to enabling dynamic, fast-growing companies to grow in Solano County, with a special focus on industries that build on Solano’s existing strengths, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, agricultural technology, biotech, and construction.
Today, we are introducing the first set of companies that have aligned behind the East Solano Plan. These employers have committed that “if Solano County voters approve the project this November, we would be interested in bringing jobs to the new community and finding other opportunities to work together to expand the California Dream.”
The companies include:
Hadrian (precision manufacturing for aerospace and defense)
Living Carbon (growing plants that capture more carbon)
Plenty (indoor vertical farming)
Serve Robotics (self-driving robots that deliver your orders on a sidewalk)
Meter (internet infrastructure provider)
Motive (fleet trucking operations)
BREX (financial services)
Cover (manufacturing modern beautiful homes)
Build Casa (helping California homeowners monetize their extra lot space through subdivision)
Zipline (drone delivery and logistics)
Freethink (media)
Instant Teams (customer experience teams built with military spouses)
These fast-growth businesses are drawn to Solano County because of the qualities that already make it special, combined with the ability to plan their growth based on the 40-year plan for East Solano. Though we are still a few years away from breaking ground, some of these companies have already started negotiating terms for acquiring space to operate in the new community if the ballot measure passes.
Hadrian
“Hadrian is building a series of factories across America to enable Space & Defense manufacturers to get parts 10x faster and halve the cost of making rockets, satellites, jets & drones,” said Chris Power, founder and CEO, Hadrian. “We are excited by the vision of amazing neighborhoods located next to a manufacturing zone designed to accelerate innovation in California. If the East Solano Plan was shovel ready today, we would already be looking at acquiring space for a new factory there.”
Living Carbon
“Living Carbon uses advanced biotech to grow plants that are more resilient to stress caused by climate change. We work with the inherent power of plants, informed by generations of scientific research, to develop photosynthesis-enhanced trees that grow faster, capture more carbon, and are resilient in high temperatures and drought conditions,” said Maddie Hall, co-founder and CEO, Living Carbon. “Living Carbon is in active talks with California Forever about building a new indoor nursery that can grow over 10 million seedlings in East Solano.”
This is just the first group of companies to support the East Solano Plan, and we expect many others to come on board over the coming months and years.
“These are the kinds of exciting, higher wage, fast growth, companies we are working to bring to Solano County. It supports our goal of aligning jobs with housing, so that less of our folks need to commute long distances to earn higher wages,” said Chris Rico, President and CEO of the Solano Economic Development Corporation. “Should the voters choose to move forward with California Forever’s audacious plan, we would be excited to work with them to deliver on their commitment to bring sustainable economic growth and well-paid jobs to the region.”
Creating 1,300+ full-time jobs in solar energy
The East Solano Plan includes approvals for building the largest solar farm in California, combined with a regional battery storage facility. The solar farm would have a capacity of 2 gigawatts, enough to power 1.5 million homes. In addition, the battery storage facility would be located on our properties that are far away from existing communities, thereby solving some of the challenges that Solano cities have faced when trying to site these facilities.
The Blue Sky Consulting Group, a public policy and economics consulting firm, has produced an economic impact report on the build-out of this solar farm. The key findings are that the project would create 1,383 full-time jobs which would persist for the duration of the phased construction period, estimated at 10 years, and generate $281 million annually over that time period, spent on Solano County firms and workers. This would make the solar project the largest private employer in Solano County, with the exception of healthcare and Six Flags. Once fully constructed, the facility would require 295 full-time employees for operations and maintenance here in Solano County.
“We believe in the vibrant communities of Solano County and recognize its unique assets and potential to support a thriving local economy,” said Michael Fortney, Head of Partnerships, California Forever. “For too long, California has been sending good-paying jobs to Texas and Florida. With the East Solano Plan, our county is well positioned to bring those jobs here instead. In the coming months, we look forward to sharing many more updates on our work to bring more good jobs, economic development, and opportunities to Solano County.”