It was a good week for Spectra Watt Inc. And that means it was a good week for the Hudson Valley and even for the state, which benefits from a solar-panel manufacturer starting its production line and garnering a huge influx of capital.
A recent facility tour earned a visit from the U.S. secretary of labor.
The company, which manufactures crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells at its new manufacturing facility in the Hudson Valley Research Park at the IBM Corp.’s semiconductor campus in Hopewell Junction, passed important operational milestones recently, putting the facility into operation in advance of shipping finished cells in May.
The company on March 23 announced it had garnered an additional $41.4 million in investor funding in the form of convertible debt.
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Investors include Cogentrix Energy L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Intel Capital, PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund and two other unnamed sources. The funds will be combined with the $50 million in capital originally raised as startup funding and used to finalize completion of the company”™s factory, advance internal operations and technology development and allow for planned expansion.
To highlight the company”™s success at moving from an empty high-tech facility to a high tech green employer on the verge of shipping its first product, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis and U.S. Rep John Hall toured the facility March 30 and discussed Spectra Watt with company executives and floor workers.
Spectra Watt employs about 60 people now, about 45 of them in the Hopewell Junction factory and has plans to increase its work force steadily as it increases production until it roughly triples its work force next year.
The manufacturing facility is a clean room. The secretary and representative made their way down the huge line discussing operations with workers in white coveralls, booties and hats.
Company Vice President for Business Affairs David O”™Connor briefed reporters about the company”™s successful transition from an idea with backing to a business about to ship commercial product.
O”™Connor said that Spectra Watt landed in the Hudson Valley because of incentives offered by New York State, because of the high-tech space available at the IBM facility and because of the quality of the workforce that was available to start right away, with minimal training in silicon based products.
“This is what we mean when we talk about green jobs,” said Solis, arriving at the end of the line. She said that such jobs are key to helping the country emerge from the recession via job growth, as opposed to the steady loss of jobs sent overseas. “That is why we are committed to investing in greening our economy. Green jobs pay 10-20 percent more and will be home-grown and not outsourced.”
Hall reminded reporters that 30 years ago, as an organizer of the “No Nukes” concert in New York City, he wrote a song that began, “Just give me the warm power of the sun.”
Those words are even more important today, he said, as renewable energy can renew America”™s standing as the foremost economic power in the world, creating jobs at home while freeing the country from dependence on foreign oil sources. He said more action is needed to fulfill the promise inherent in clean energy, both environmentally and economically.
“Good energy policy can be good economic policy, and SpectraWatt is a clear example of this,” said Hall. “As we enact policies that encourage the use of renewable technologies, it can only help to spur development at companies like this. Here, we”™re rebuilding our energy policy and infrastructure, while also boosting our manufacturing base.”
Hall said workers along the production line told him the new work was not difficult for them to learn.
“They told us their retraining was relatively easy because they were in familiar territory,” said Hall.
In response to a question regarding qualifications for employment in such jobs, Solis asked an employee of Spectra Watt to field the question. He said his grounding in math and science was key and went on to describe his quick transition from the closed NXP facility to the new Spectra Watt plant.
About the only off-key note came when he said he commuted an hour daily from his home in Pennsylvania to work. O”™Connor quickly noted the facility also employs residents of Dutchess, Ulster and other surrounding counties. But he said that as the company grows in size it, too, may seek to move factories offshore, where production costs are cheaper.
