Phoenix: Power-One Plans Phoenix Projects

Thursday, September 9, 2010, 11:59am MST
Power-One plans partnerships with ASU, potential $40M investment
Phoenix Business Journal - by Patrick O'Grady

Power-One Inc. is planning to partner with Arizona State University as part of its Phoenix project, and could invest as much as $40 million in the effort over the next few years.

Richard Thompson, the company’s CEO, said Power-One is interested in working with ASU on an innovation center, which will be part of its new facility announced Thursday. The center will provide research and development for the Camarillo, Calif.-based company on new ways to help deliver solar power.

Part of reason for choosing Phoenix was ASU’s engineering programs as well as an existing labor force that could help staff the innovation center plus fill many of the technical jobs the company plans to bring to its first U.S. manufacturing facility, Thompson said.

“It’s very heavy on technical and skilled labor needs,” he said.

Power-One (Nasdaq:PWER), the second largest inverter manufacturer in the world, plans to invest $10 million in the facility at 3201 E. Harbour Drive in Phoenix. The plant will have the capacity to develop enough inverters and equipment to transform about 1 gigawatt of power from direct current, which comes directly off of solar panels, to alternating current, which powers all electronics.

Neil Dial, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the Phoenix facility could be similar to a plant the Power-One has in Germany that produces 4 gigawatts of inverters annually, roughly four times the size of the Phoenix facility. That plant employs about 1,200 people.

“If the interest takes off in the U.S., that’s what you’re looking at,” he said.

The key will be the U.S. market, which is among the fastest growing and expected to be behind only China and Germany and close to Japan in terms of need over the next two to three years, Thompson said.

Power-One spent several months evaluating sites in nearly 10 states before narrowing its choices down to the Valley and Texas. The ASU connection as well as proximity to markets in California and Nevada, along with the state’s favorable business climate for solar, all were determining factors, Thompson said.

“The whole Southwest, that’s where the sun is,” he said. “That’s where the land is to put those parcels, and that’s where we need to be.”