A new solar energy startup has alighted in Ulster County.
Rick Lewandowski, CEO at Prism Solar Technologies (PST), which has developed a technology utilizing holographic film integrated onto solar cells, announced Feb. 25 that his company would locate a manufacturing facility in the region within the next year. He said he expected the initiative to result in 140 new jobs within the next three years and more than 400 jobs within the next five years.
As part of the announcement, Lewandowski signed a partnership agreement with Vince Cozzolino, president and CEO of The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC). TSEC was launched just over a year ago as a way to jumpstart Ulster County”™s economy by attracting a cluster of solar energy manufacturing firms. Prism Solar is the first solar startup company to sign on as a partner.
Presiding over the event, which was held at the Courtyard by Marriott in the town of Ulster and attended by the local business community and economic development officials, was U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, who has obtained more than $5 million in federal funds for TSEC-related initiatives. That includes $1 million for Prism, which will use the money to pay for testing and purchase of manufacturing equipment, Lewandowski said.
Prism has so far raised more than $8.5 million, much of it from venture capital firms. Lewandowski said he planned to manufacture 240 MW of photovoltaic modules utilizing the company”™s proprietary technology within the first three years of operations, which would be sold to solar energy manufacturers in Europe and Asia. He said 60 MW of product would also be produced for the domestic market. Product would begin shipping in six months, he said.
Prism, which was started by Lewandowski several years ago after he obtained the patent for the proprietary holographic film technology from an Arizona-based glass manufacturer, recently established temporary headquarters in leased space at the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, a nonprofit business incubator in Lake Katrine.
Lewandowski said he hoped to shift operations to Tech City, the former IBM facility owned by Alan Ginsberg within the year. TSEC originally planned to establish a location at Tech City, but reportedly has been stymied by the challenges of retrofitting the decades-only facility and getting the funds to pay the rent.
Lewandowski has long experience in the solar energy sector. He launched Sunwize Technologies, a solar energy system integrator and wholesaler based in Kingston, more than 20 years ago. He subsequently sold Sunwize to another company. He then started Direct Global Power, a joint venture with Niagara Mohawk (now National Grid), which is headquartered in Niskayuna.
In 2005, he started Prism Solar, maintaining a research lab in Arizona. He said the technology has been under development for six years, with the company maintaining a research lab in Tucson.
Lewandowski said it has also done testing in conjunction with SUNY Binghamton, which is one of TSEC”™s six university partners.
Lewandowski said the solar energy market “is exploding. It”™s growing at over 40 percent” annually.
Worldwide, the photovoltaic market was valued at $8.6 billion in 2006. One challenge to growth has been a shortage of silicon, which is used to manufacture solar energy modules. Lewandowski said his firm has an edge because its technology requires less silicon than conventional cells and is much more efficient trapping sunlight and converting it into energy.
“Our technology is unique,” Lewandowski said. “It captures sunlight in the lower incidences in the morning and afternoon. There”™s five to 10 more kilowatts per hour of production with our module.”
The Holographic Planar Concentrator, as the technology is called, replaces from 30 percent to 72 percent of the silicon used in a traditional solar module, reducing the cost.
While no contracts have been signed yet, Lewandowski said Prism had “over 300 MW of purchase order requests.” Prism has attracted interest from a module manufacturing joint venture in Europe, a manufacturer building solar modules in the U.S. as well as with a glass manufacturer, to develop and test products.
He said wages for the potential new jobs “would be pretty high” and range from engineers and scientists to administrative assistants.
Ulster County Development Corp. president Lance Matteson, who attended the event, noted that Empire State Development Corp. has established $1.5 million in incentives for solar energy firms. In addition, Gov. Eliot Spitzer is pushing the state Legislature to appropriate $5 million in state funds for TSEC, which was included in his proposed 2008 budget.
“Other states are very aggressive in the solar industry and in some cases are way ahead of us,” said Matteson. “We need to advance net metering quickly, combined with incentives for the utilities.”
Hinchey said he was hopeful a solar energy tax credit bill would pass the House this week. The bill would extend tax credits to manufacturers of solar energy in order to boost research and production of solar products and provide tax credits for consumers.
