Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2010 Archive > July > Int’l Firms Bet Big on NY Energy Market

Int’l Firms Bet Big on NY Energy Market

Friday, July 2, 2010

The Business Review (Albany) - by Robin K. Cooper

International and out-of-state companies focused on clean energy are investing heavily in the Albany area, fueling a sector that has attracted more than $400 million.

Companies from Spain, Belgium and Scotland have announced plans over the past two weeks to expand their presence here by investing in research, manufacturing, engineering and sales staffs.

SEPSA N.A., a subsidiary of the Albatros Group of Spain, announced a plan this week to invest $4.6 million and add 30 employees to expand its local engineering and product assembly operations.

The company, which employs 40 workers in Schenectady, is negotiating with the state to lease or acquire land at the Saratoga Technology + Energy Park in Malta to build a new 40,000-square-foot plant. The site will give the company room to begin producing photovoltaic inverter systems that will be used in railcars and other devices.

That announcement came four days after CG Power of Belgium said it will invest $20 million to create a research and development center for smart grid and energy innovation at the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

The CG Power Center for Intelligent Power will create more than 100 tech jobs, including 50 for scientists and engineers.

“We weren’t aware of what was here five years ago when we identified nanotechnology as a growth area that could help many of our products,” said Gautam Thapar, chairman and CEO of Avantha Group, the India-based parent company of CG Power.

CG Power designs, markets and manufactures products and offers services related to power transmission and generation. Avantha, with $4 billion in annual revenue, owns companies in the paper and pulp, food processing, farm forestry and chemical industries. Nanotechnology could make his businesses more efficient and more competitive, Thapar said.

After a group of representatives from New York met with him in India a year ago, Thapar said he realized that the best place to open a new research and development center was in Albany.

“The critical mass is here,” he said, referring to the work force, universities and supply companies.

Universities around the region have spurred interest in the area, said Francis Murray, president of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

UAlbany’s NanoTech center has become a research and training hub for the East, joining Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one of the top engineering schools, he said.

Pradeep Haldar, director of Albany NanoTech’s Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center, said more energy firms are taking an interest in the school because it gives them access to research and companies.

Magnolia Solar, a Massachusetts company that develops nanostructured thin-film solar cells, moved into Albany NanoTech Center in March.

The company received a $1 million grant from the state to develop its solar cells in a partnership with the university.

Community colleges also have responded to a growing demand for workers by training students to install solar energy panels and work in other energy fields, including semiconductors and wind power. Hudson Valley Community College invested $15 million last year to build an energy-focused satellite campus at the STEP park in Malta, Saratoga County. The campus, which is located next door to the $4.2 billion computer-chip plant being built by GlobalFoundries, will train up to 300 students a year to work in emerging energy or clean energy fields.

Schenectady County Community College has introduced its own new programs, preparing students for semiconductor jobs or to work at General Electric’s proposed $100 million battery plant.

“Training for these type of jobs is a big piece of it,” said Carol Murphy, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York Inc. in Albany.

Good government policy also helps, she said.

“The state has given a lot of research and development money for pilot projects, that’s key,” Murphy said.

In the past five years, NYSERDA has awarded more than $30 million to energy related companies for business development and manufacturing incentive programs. Those funds have leveraged more than $170 million in outside investments, according to state records.

That does not include funding for projects such as the $2 million state grant for Beacon Power Corp.’s $69 million energy storage plant in Stephentown in rural Rensselaer County. Construction on that project began last year. The plant will store energy and transfer it back to the grid.

“There was a lot of pent-up demand for this type of investment,” said Mark Scher, CEO of MSE Power Systems Inc., which was acquired by CG Power.

“For the economy to grow, we need to find ways to squeeze more out of the existing grid,” he said. “New York is one of the states in front of the curve.”