I
remember listening to a catchy tune when I was a youngster called
“South of the Border (Down Mexico Way).” It told the tale of a cowboy
who fell in love with a Mexican gal.
This song came to mind
recently when I interviewed D.J. Hill, CEO of Silicon Border. D. J. is
passionate about something in Mexico as well, but not a girl. He
envisions manufacturing in North America, just south of the border, in
a place called Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico.
Silicon
Border is not a new venture. Some of you may already be familiar with
it. The impetus for the interview was the completion of phase one of
infrastructure development. The infrastructure buildout consists of a
potable water plant and distribution, fiber-optic telephone and data
cable, power substations, and waste treatment facilities.
LESSONS LEARNED IN ASIA
D. J. spent a lot of time working in Asia during the late 1980s and
early 1990s in countries like Malaysia and Singapore to expand National
Semiconductor’s operations. He explained that oftentimes factories were
built in a particular country due to financial incentives such as low
taxes. Then, he had the tough task of trying to get enough water,
power, or both to feed the factories. To solve these problems, D. J.
and his team focused on building science parks.
“You’d be out
in some remote area 10 miles from town and at the same time trying to
get water and power and communications infrastructure,” he said. The
science park concept was a way to bring these and other resources, such
as education, into a remote area.
Silicon Border is called the
first eco-friendly science park. In other words, the construction firm
that is building the park, Grupo Maiz of Monterrey, Mexico, is taking
advantage of the latest in building technology.
For example,
its water treatment plant is designed to recycle up to 90% of the water
used within the park. The other 10% will be dedicated to irrigation and
other uses. This plant is considered state-of-the-art and will meet or
exceed the exacting standards for water demanded by high-technology
manufacturing.
In addition, Silicon Border is the first
science park in the world to use LED lighting exclusively for 100% of
its roadways and parking lots. D.J. also noted Silicon Border conforms
to the strict Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
green building rating system criteria (www.usgbc.org).
LEED was developed and is administered by the U. S. Green Building
Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to green building
design.
LOCATIONS, LOCATION, LOCATION
D. J. started out by looking for a location that would be an
alternative to Asia in North America. He ended up along the border of
Mexico in Mexicali, which is only a couple hours by air from the
technology centers in Silicon Valley, Dallas, and Phoenix.
He
felt that if Mexico could come up with incentives and infrastructure,
essentially everything that was available in Asia, he was sure there
was an opportunity to grab some piece of the manufacturing action. “If
(Mexico) can create a competitive alternative to Asia,” he said, “we’ll
get some percentage (of manufacturing) here.”
At the time,
Mexico was doing assembly work only, like TVs and circuit boards.
Silicon Border is the first effort for Mexico to have a science park
focused on technologically based manufacturing, more than just assembly
or putting things together.
Another plus for the Mexicali
location is that Silicon Border can take advantage of brand-new
gasfired power plants from Sempra Energy and Inter- Gen, which is a
joint venture of Shell and Bechtel. These two power plants together
generate 1.8 GW at a competitive cost for a 24/7 user—7 cents per
kilowatt-hour. Water cost is also competitive at 40 cents per cubic
meter.
As far as education goes, the Universidad Autonoma de
Baja California (UABC) has about 40,000 students. UABC intends to build
an engineering campus in the science park.
Besides being
environmentally friendly itself, Silicon Border is hoping to attract
“green” companies to its home in Mexicali. One of its successes thus
far has been Q-Cells, which has its headquarters in Bitterfeld-Wolfen,
Germany.
Last May, Silicon Border announced that this company,
which is the world’s largest solar cell manufacturer, had selected
Silicon Border for its next major expansion. Facility and plant
investments are expected to reach up to $3.5 billion eventually.
With phase one of the Silicon Border project now complete, phase two
will be getting underway shortly and is expected to be completed by
2011, so there is still a ways to go. But high-tech companies now have
a strategic manufacturing alternative to Asia—down Mexico way.
For more information on Silicon Border, point your browser to
www.siliconborder.com. To listen to the entire interview, see ED Online
21081.
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