This year may be viewed as the year in which the idea of a solar industry cluster in the region went from the planning stage to the operational stage.
Two solar-related manufacturing companies started their production lines this year, one in Kingston and one in Fishkill, and both report operations are so successful that they have expanded.
Another solar company in Highland is test-marketing products with would-be customers and likewise reporting encouraging results. And meanwhile, several smaller solar-related companies are merging energy-efficiency technologies to create an array of products, economic opportunity and jobs.
“We broke out in 2010,” said Vincent Cozzolino, the CEO of The Solar Energy Consortium, a nonprofit group of industry, public officials and academia. The brainchild of Congressman Maurice Hinchey, founded in 2007, the consortium has explicitly sought to bring a solar energy industry to the Hudson Valley and New York state.
The early years
“We set the stage in 2008, in 2009 we started to execute, getting some manufacturers up and in 2010 the pipeline of companies really emerged,” said Cozzolino. He said there are now 70 companies in the solar business across New York and there is an entire supply chain, from raw material to finished goods, emerging from within the state.
Kingston is so far the epicenter of the solar activity. “The solar cluster that began forming in Ulster County a few years ago has found a nucleus in Tech City,” said Paul Rakov, director of sales and marketing for the resurgent former IBM facility. “We have a dozen or so companies here already that work in the solar field and roughly 40 percent of our prospective tenants are in the industry as well.”
Topping the list of solar success at Tech City is Solartech Renewables LLC, which designs and manufactures industrial-size photovoltaic panels that have the longest guarantee, 27 years, in the industry.
Solartech production starts in June
In June, the company began operating its first production line at Tech City with one eight-hour shift of 11 employees. Product demand was such that Solartech has added another shift, which will result in an additional 19 full-time employees, and the line now operates 16 hours a day, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“We are very encouraged by the reaction in the marketplace,” said Todd Roberts, Solartech Renewables”™ chairman and CEO. “Our product durability, quality and innovation, being made in America, and our understanding of our customers”™ businesses are all factors that have made the difference as we compete successfully in this market.
“We”™ve closed deals right on the production floor simply because our customers can come here and see what we”™re doing,” said Roberts. “We have enough orders to keep these two shifts busy for the next several years and we will likely need to expand our production again soon.”
The facility is producing more than 12 megawatts of solar panels a year, or approximately 55,000 panels, and expansion plans are being pursued to increase production to 75 megawatts annually.
SpectraWatt going 24/7
Another solar manufacturer opened at an IBM campus in East Fishkill, where SpectraWatt started its production line in May, and now literally does not stop it.
SpectraWatt makes and supplies photovoltaic cells for solar panels. The company focuses on advancing solar energy technologies to improve manufacturing in order to reduce the cost of photovoltaic energy generation.
And its work is proving extremely successful. “Since moving in to our manufacturing facility earlier this year and officially launching the factory in May, SpectraWatt has enjoyed solid growth,” Andrew Wilson, CEO, SpectraWatt. “We”™re now at 153 employees, our factory now runs 24/7 and we certainly anticipate SpectraWatt’s continued evolution in years ahead.”
Parts maker finds success
Making parts for the solar industry, as opposed to making panels themselves, is also proving successful for another solar company, Prism Solar Technologies in Highland. The company designs and manufactures products that make solar panels and other solar products more efficient and after starting its production line in 2009, began shipping products late in 2009 and throughout 2010 for field testing with would-be customers.
“We are starting to get field test results back,” said Stephen Filler, director of corporate development. He said the products are proving to be excellent in performance and reliability.
The company currently has about 40 employees, with 22 in the Highland facility, which is “Expecting to ramp that up significantly,” said Filler.
To some extent, investment will play a role in fostering expansion and Filler said the company is encouraged. “It”™s a challenging market for venture capital, but we have a lot of interest in the investment community and among strategic partners,” he said.
Expanding the business
The success of the solar industry has induced some companies to expand their business repertoire into making components for the solar industry, and created a synergy of solar and LED lighting that is promoting additional optimism.
For example Cozzolino cited Precision Flow Inc., which started in a garage in Saugerties in 1981, and in 2010 it expanded its facility at Tech City from 25,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet, at least in part, because it is involved in producing components for solar power equipment and LED lighting.
And the nexus of LED and solar power is also seen at Fala Technologies, located adjacent to Tech City, which among other products, is now designing and manufacturing signs lit with LEDs powered by solar panels. The company is now the largest such company in the nation, in what is still a niche market but one that is rapidly gaining attention.
Cozzolino said he expects such success stories to continue. “So the momentum is building in a very bad economy,” he said. “Our pipeline of companies interested in coming to New York is still very full. So we think 2011 is going to look a lot like 2010.”
