A Once-Dark Polaroid Factory Goes Green : NPR

This is awesome. It was seriously sucky for that part of MA when the Polaroid factory closed.

A Once-Dark Polaroid Factory Goes Green : NPR

Many old factories around the country now sit dark and empty. But at a once-defunct Polaroid film factory in New Bedford, Mass., the lights are on again and a new industry is rising up inside the ruins of an old one.

The company Konarka makes solar panels, but not the kind most people have seen. These are thin, lightweight, flexible plastic sheets, and that enables them to be used in all sorts of new ways.

...One type of the power plastic is transparent, so it can be built into windows to let homes or office buildings generate their own solar power. The material can also be sewn onto a bag or briefcase — even something that small will generate electricity.

...And the company has hired back about 20 of the former Polaroid workers to run the factory. So it has given new green jobs to workers who had been laid off.

"You know, I invested my whole career at Polaroid and I thought it was over," says Mike Page, an electrician and machine operator. "And now I feel renewed and I feel like I have a whole new future."