Economy of Albuquerque

The solar energy and architectural-design innovator Steve Baer located his company, Zomeworks, to the region in the late 1960s; and Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cooperate here in an enterprise that began with the Manhattan Project. In January 2007, Tempur-Pedic opened an 800,000-square-foot (74,000 m) mattress factory in northwest Albuquerque. SCHOTT Solar, Inc., announced in January 2008 they will open a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m) facility manufacturing receivers for concentrated solar thermal power plants (CSP) and 64MW of photovoltaic (PV) modules. The facility closed in 2012.

Forbes Magazine rated Albuquerque the best city in America for business and careers in 2006 and the 13th best (out of 200 metro areas) in 2008