In some cases the sounds of workmen renovating a facility would be a distraction during a press conference. But Dec. 21, as officials announced a multimillion-dollar federal defense contract that will help a local business expand at Tech City, the din was the sound of progress.
The press conference was called to announce a $2.8 million contract to make the equipment for fabricating silicon carbon solar wafers that will be created by C9 Corp. in partnership with Precision Flow Technologies at Tech City, where a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is being created for Saugerties-based Precision Flow to expand its operations.
The funding was announced by U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey speaking at Tech City, with officials from companies, local government and The Solar Energy Consortium, a nonprofit public-private partnership hoping to stoke the solar energy business in the Hudson Alley and statewide.
Hinchey, who helped found the consortium in 2007 that brokered the manufacturing facilities agreement for Precision Flow Technologies, said the $2.8 million funding is from a 2010 Defense Department appropriations bill that is intended to help job growth locally (and has been approved) by improving the military”™s energy management.?“This federal funding serves as a further investment in the solar energy sector that is helping to power the Hudson Valley’s economy for years to come,” said Hinchey.
Precision Flow Technologies is a local success story, going from a startup in founder Kevin Brady”™s garage to a company that currently has 185 employees in three states and is hiring 20 new workers to work at TechCity on a variety of solar-related projects. Fifty or 60 new employees are expected to be hired at Tech City within one year, some of whom will be working on the C-9 project.
Hinchey said the U.S. military is the single biggest consumer of energy of any entity in the world and said the military is seeking better ways to provide power, especially to troops in the field. Research by C9 and its partners may lead to development of solar powered devices for backpacks and other portable applications as well as LED lighting that could simplify life for troops and be spun off into additional, and profitable, civilian applications.
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Brady said the company could grow by $100 million to $200 million if the product development is successful. The civilian commercial opportunities “could literally double the size of the company” if the project succeeds in developing products in timely fashion.
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“These are products that haven”™t been really designed yet in a sense,” said C9 Corp. President Kevin Donegan. “For other products you say you are going to be in production by such and such a date. We have to hope we”™re going to be in production, because you”™re still in the (research and development) stage, you are still commercializing. From R-and-D to production is always a tough road.”
Donegan said his company will get about 60 percent of the $2.8 million appropriated for the project after military reviews are conducted, with Precision Flow Technologies being paid as one of four subcontractors for the project. He estimated precision flow would get about 60 percent of the C9 share.
In another bit of good news for local industry, at a separate event Dec. 19 Hinchey announced final Congressional approval for a $1.6 million federal grant to Armor Dynamics, which is developing Magmacore Armor, a patented composite armor technology. The company says its armor will help shield vehicles against improvised explosive devices and penetrating weapons.
Armor Dynamics is located at the Kingston Business Park. Company President and CEO David Warren said the money “will support our research partnership with the U.S. Army and lead to innovative solutions that will better protect our combat soldiers.”
“This federal investment will create or save 10 jobs in Kingston right now and pave the way for the likely creation of two-dozen more jobs within the next two years from federal contracts that Armor Dynamics will be well positioned to receive,” Hinchey said.
