Monday, October 26, 2009
Denver Business Journal - by Cathy Proctor
"SMA Solar Technology AG, the world’s largest manufacturer of a critical component in solar power generation, said Monday it will invest about $20 million in its first North American manufacturing plant — in Denver — expected to open in the first half of 2010.
SMA, based in Niestetal, Germany, manufacturers inverters for solar power systems — the device that converts direct current (DC) electricity, produced by the panels, into alternating current (AC) electricity, which can be used by electrical equipment and sent onto the power grid network. SMA holds about 40 percent of the world’s marketshare for solar panel inverters and manufactures equipment for small, residential-sized systems as well as commercial and large, utility-scale systems.
The company surveyed 10 cities in the United States and chose Denver for its first manufacturing plant outside of Germany — specifically about 180,000 square feet of space at 4701 Havana — due to the building’s access to Interstate 70 and nearby railway lines and the skills of the local workforce, officials said...The company expects to invest about 15 million Euros in the project, nearly $22.3 million at current exchange rates.
About 300 jobs are expected initially, with the average wage of $30,000. The company expects that as demand for the inverters grows that the number of jobs could grow to 700 at the plant, Urbon said...
The state offered SMA about $2 million in incentives, tied to creating jobs in an enterprise zone and helping to pay for training of the new employees. The company also qualifies for a 3 percent investment tax credit, said Jeff Holwell, direction of the business development for the state’s office of Economic Development and International Trade...
SMA didn’t qualify for the state’s newest tax credits for companies that create at least 20 jobs, because HB 1001, sponsored by Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and signed into law May 4 by Ritter, also requires the jobs pay at least 100 percent of the county’s average wage. In Denver, that’s $59,000, Holwell said...
Denver offered SMA $1 million over five years for job creation and training, said Andre Pettigrew, director of economic development for the city..." [link to full article]
