Hundreds of Denver manufacturing jobs could be created if a leading energy company decides to locate its new plant in Colorado. Visit http://denver.jobing.com/jobs/manufacturing to see current openings.

Several local officials are joining together in an effort to bring General Electric's new solar panel manufacturing plant to Colorado.

After recently acquiring PrimeStar Solar Inc., a local company that manufactures thin-film solar panels, GE announced its plans to build a new solar panel manufacturing plant that will eventually employ about 400 people.

However, the company has yet to choose a location for the new facility. According to an article by the Denver Business Journal, GE is currently considering 10 states for the plant.

In an attempt to persuade GE to build the new solar panel manufacturing plant in Colorado, many local officials wrote a joint letter to the company, stating their support for renewable energy.

The letter was signed by:

• Gov. John Hickenlooper
• Sen. Michael Bennet
• Sen. Mark Udall
• Rep. Diana DeGette
Rep. Ed Perlmutter
• Rep. Jared Polis
• Rep. Scott Tipton
• Rep. Cory Gardner
• Rep. Doug Lamborn
• Rep. Mike Coffman
• Bruce Benson, president of the University of Colorado
• Joe Blake, chancellor of Colorado State University
• Bill Scoggins, president of the Colorado School of Mines

"Colorado is on the leading edge of clean energy economic development and we can't think of a better place to site such a facility," the letter notes. Our state is a demonstrated leader in clean energy research, innovation and manufacturing.

"As state and federal collaboration can facilitate innovative economic opportunities such as GE's proposal, we stand ready to provide any additional help to attract this facility to Colorado," the letter adds.

The expansion of a local plant will eventually result in a handful of new Houston manufacturing jobs. Check out http://houston.jobing.com/cat/manufacturing-and-production for other available jobs.

A&A Machine & Fabrication recently began building an expansion of the company's existing manufacturing facility in La Marque, Texas, located about 40 miles from Houston. That expansion will eventually allow the company to take on more business and hire more employees.

The new expansion, which the company has been planning for several years, will cost about $1.3 million and will measure about 10,000 square feet. It will allow the company to increase its capacity and take on new business.

A&A currently employs about 83 workers at its existing manufacturing facility. The expanded facility's increased capacity will eventually allow the company to hire more workers.

"We anticipate adding six to seven new welders and supervisors and potentially more as the word of our capacity increase gets out," C. Alan Hutchins, president and CEO of A&A Machine, told The Galveston County Daily News, adding that some layoffs have been made in the meantime.

"In a fluctuating economy there are many ups and downs in business," he continued. "A&A is expanding for the future, but in the short term had to lay-off four full time employees."

Once complete, the expanded facility will house $200,000 worth of new equipment, including welding machines, metal rollers and manipulators, and 10-ton cranes. The La Marque Economic Development Corporation gave A&A Machine a $100,000 grant toward that equipment.

"The building will be used to build large pressure vessels, pipe systems and process skids for the petrochemical and plastics industry," Hutchins said. "That means we get to work on bigger projects than we can now."