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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Cleantech companies add local jobs from sales in China
By Special to Mass High Tech
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Doing business in China has spurred some New England cleantech companies to add jobs locally in the past year, and the companies are poised to make still more hires as the Chinese market for renewable power continues to grow.
Devens-based American Superconductor Corp., which produces components and systems for wind turbines, and Watertown-based A123 Systems Inc., which produces batteries for electric vehicles, are two examples of the trend, said New England Clean Energy Council president Nick d’Arbeloff.
“When these companies go to China and meet with success, it inevitably grows their business and delivers jobs back to Massachusetts at their headquarters location,” d’Arbeloff said.
American Superconductor has five Chinese wind-power companies as customers and has grown its corporate work force in Devens by 10 percent in the past year, to 160 employees, said company spokesman Jason Fredette. The job growth is in the areas of finance, human resources, administrative support and other corporate functions.
“A lot of those additions on the corporate side are related to our wind business,” Fredette said, adding that the business has won more than $600 million worth of orders from Chinese companies since July. Among the orders is a contract with China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, Sinovel Wind, for electrical control systems to serve 5 megawatt turbines.
GT Solar International Inc., based in Merrimack, N.H., has most of its customers in China, and 60 jobs have been added since September, said marketing communications director Jeff Nestel-Patt.
Most of the new hires are for production work in Merrimack, where final assembly and testing products is done, Nestel-Patt said. The company develops technology and manufacturing equipment that is used to produce photovoltaic wafers, cells and modules, and polysilicon. About $200 million worth of orders have come in since January from Chinese companies, which then use GT Solar’s technology to do their own solar component production.
“The recent growth of the industry has resulted in a tremendous amount of new business for us,” Nestel-Patt said. GT Solar has created jobs in engineering and other areas, and plans to add 40 positions in the fiscal year starting in April. In the recent and upcoming hiring, about half are contract employees, Nestel-Patt said.
To help conduct business and win contracts in China, both GT Solar and American Superconductor operate offices there.
In Massachusetts, Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian Bowles said the state is working to position itself for further cleantech job growth through capitalizing on the Chinese market.
Bowles believes that companies in China will increasingly tap Bay State firms doing research and development in renewables. “As you have a boom in production of products for wind and solar around the world, the dominant presence of Massachusetts industries in those areas will mean greater job growth in those areas,” he said.
But the surge of renewables manufacturing in China also means competition for some cleantech producers in New England. That could lead to a loss of local jobs to the East, as companies seek lower production costs. Evergreen Solar Inc., which manufactures solar panels and parts in Devens, announced plans in November to move its panel assembly to China, for example, a move that could mean the exodus of hundreds of jobs from Massachusetts. Evergreen Solar did not respond to a request for comment, but Bowles said executives have told him no jobs have moved to China so far.
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