SpectraWatt to Take Over IBM Plant

Turning the past towards the future this week, SpectraWatt takes over a former IBM Plant and has begun retrofitting it to manufacture PV solar cells instead of computer processing chips.  The new enterprise, located in the Hudson Valley Research Center in New York, will replace many of the jobs that were lost when IBM shuttered its doors.  Solar manufacturing is a hot market these days, with hundreds of thousands of green jobs expected in the sector by the end of 2010.

SpectraWatt manufactures and supplies photovoltaic (PV) cells for the solar industry.  Its focus is not only on advanced solar cell technologies, but also improvements to existing manufacturing processes, with an aim to reduce economic costs associated with solar panel power generation.  SpectraWatt is aiming to produce solar energy at “grid parity.”  That is, at comparable prices to coal-based electricity through its technological innovations.

Politicians and business people in the region are quite excited about the SpectraWatt move-in at the Hudson Valley Research Center.  Not only clean energy, but green jobs should result.  In fact, SpectraWatt is expecting to be able to create a number of positions that could replace lost jobs.  More than 100 jobs in just the first year of operations are forecasted.

According to Rick Haug:

“It’s the same skill set and the factory we’re going to build we could utilize, not 600 people, but we are certainly going to hire a number of them, and two of them started today.”

The future is looking bright for SpectraWatt.  The current tenants of the Hudson Valley Research Center, Axio Power and Apex Wind Energy, expect a big future with respect to renewable energy in New York State.  With the current economic climate, plus renewable energy tax credits and incentives, it makes sense that SpectraWatt would take over the former IBM plant for its own RE operations.

SpectraWatt has two locations in the U.S. – one in New York, and the second in Hillsboro, Oregon.  Per its official press release:

“The company, which is in the process of moving from their previous location in Oregon, aims to be in production early in 2010.  SpectraWatt’s first factory line will have an initial manufacturing capacity of 60 megawatts (MW); additional lines are already being planned with site capacity exceeding 120 MW within the first two years of operation.”

A hearty congratulations to SpectraWatt!  Best of luck with your new solar power operations.

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