For more than 22 years, SatCon Technology Corp. (Nasdaq: SATC) has delivered utility-scale renewable energy solutions for solar photovoltaic, fuel cells, wind turbines and energy storage systems. Addressing rising demands in the European and Asian alternative energy markets, the company today announced it will increase its manufacturing capacity by 50 percent in the third quarter of 2008, a 20-percent increase over original manufacturing plans.
Feeling the pressure to complete its large-scale renewable energy projects before the expiration of the current Federal Installation Tax Credit (ITC), the company is working hard to manufacture its 500kW and 225kW PowerGate Plus(TM) solar PV inverters. To accomplish this, SatCon is working with Pacific Power Management, a full service commercial solar provider. The company assesses, financially supports, designs, engineers and installs Web-based monitoring relations to support its customers.
“The failure to pass the ITC has put a hard deadline on when we start our large commercial projects so that the systems are operational by December 31st,” Mark Frederick, managing partner of Pacific Power Management stated in the press release. “SatCon’s commitment to increase production at this critical time is essential to our successful completion of these systems in time to realize the significant benefits.”
SatCon developed the industry-leading, 225-kilowatt (kW) solar PV inverter in April of 2005, and the industry-standard 500 kW PowerGate Plus solar PV inverter in December of 2005, reporting record adoption rates in the rapidly accelerating utility-scale distributed energy market.
“Our customers have communicated a significant increase in demand for our large commercial and utility scale products throughout the balance of 2008 as they race to finish their projects before the end of the year,” said Steve Rhoades, SatCon’s president and CEO. “We have made the strategic decision to expand our manufacturing capacity in order to deliver the highest value to our customers and ensure our customers in the U.S. are able to realize the benefits available to them from the current ITC.”
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