Friday, October 31, 2008

Green manufacturing jobs sprouting in Mass.

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Once upon a time, “Made in Massachusetts” was a familiar slogan. But with the rise of the technology and biotechnology sectors, many products became “innovated in Massachusetts” but made elsewhere.

This year, however, even as economic instability has forced some technology companies to execute layoffs, the clean-tech industry has been building new production and manufacturing facilities at a rapid pace. With three local clean-tech companies launching new, multi-million dollar facilities this year and a number of smaller production plants being built, it seems the green technology movement may be bringing manufacturing back to the Bay State.

Last week, Cambridge-based Great Point Energy Inc., a developer of a clean coal gasification process, announced the details of a new pilot-scale facility at East Coast power utility Dominion Resources Inc.’s Somerset research facility. While the plant is expected to take 12 months to complete, when all is said and done, the $25 million plant will add 100 jobs to the region, executives said.

But Great Point Energy is not the only clean-tech company adding jobs in the commonwealth. Last month, Lowell-based Konarka Technologies Inc., a maker of thin-film photovoltaic materials, opened what its executives call “the world’s largest” roll-to-roll thin-film solar manufacturing facility at the old Polaroid Corp. plant in New Bedford. While initially employing 10 to 15 people, the 250,000 square-foot facility is expected to employ more than 100 workers over the next two to three years.

Add to those projects the well-documented Evergreen Solar Inc. manufacturing plant, which opened last July in Devens and which eventually will bring 700 jobs to the area— along with a second such plant for Evergreen planned in the near future — and you have more than 1,000 new manufacturing jobs over the next two years from just three projects.

“This (activity) is an opportunity to bring manufacturing back to Massachusetts,” said Konarka CEO Rick Hess.

The new facilities also produce ancillary jobs, according to Ian Bowles, secretary of the state’s Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. While the construction and mechanical engineering sectors should certainly benefit, Bowles pointed to the solar industry as an example of growth. Since the launch of the state’s solar rebate program, he said, there has been a surge of activity in the solar installer market, with companies like groSolar Inc. and SolarWrights Inc. experiencing unprecedented growth.

The state can also expect new jobs from a variety of smaller facilities. Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc. expanded the capacity of its manufacturing facility in Burlington in the spring, and late last year, Charlestown was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to host one of two federal wind blade testing facilities in the country.

The state has been involved in most of these projects, providing funding through the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative and Massachusetts Development Corp., as well as support from the state’s Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the governor’s office. In fact, as Great Point Energy was looking for sites for its first pilot facility — mostly in coal-rich areas such as Texas, Wyoming and Alberta, Canada — executives were introduced to Dominion by Gov. Deval Patrick at an event.

Much of the activity can be traced to a 2007 meeting of local clean-tech leaders and state officials aimed at organizing the region’s then-burgeoning but fragmented cluster. Part of that meeting focused on building an alternative energy and clean-technology infrastructure in the state that would not only generate innovation, but also jobs.

“This infrastructure growth didn’t happen by chance,” said Dan Goldman, CFO of Great Point Energy. “There has been a far-reaching effort by a lot of people, both in the private sector and state government, to make Massachusetts a leader in clean technology.”