Convalt continues to work on financing for Hounsfield solar panel plant
Oct. 7—HOUNSFIELD — A groundbreaking for the massive Convalt Energy solar manufacturing plant has been pushed back again, this time until November as the company continues to wait to hear about a federal loan for the project.
David J. Zembiec, CEO of Jefferson County Economic Development, gave a status report about the groundbreaking during a Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency meeting on Thursday.
"Hopefully, by November for a groundbreaking," he said.
Company president and CEO Hari Achuthan continues to work on financing for the 330,000-square-foot plant near the Watertown International Airport on Route 12E in the town of Hounsfield.
The company had originally hoped to break ground last summer.
Mr. Achuthan is waiting to hear about a $25 million loan from X-Caliber Capital, an Irvington, Westchester County, bank that provides financing for rural businesses through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program.
The financing application is going "through the vetting process," Mr. Zembiec said.
Mr. Achuthan also met with state Empire State Development officials last week about getting support for the project, he said.
On Thursday, the JCIDA board gave both Convalt and its sister company, DigiCollect, extensions until March 15 for its Land Development Agreement for the site of the project. The agreement recently expired with the JCIDA.
The extension was given "to allow more time" to work on the financing, board chairman Robert Aliasso said.
Mr. Zembiec and the JCIDA have been working with Convalt on the project.
The manufacturing plant would create 320 jobs within three years with the potential for hundreds more in the future.
The facility would produce 900 megawatts of solar panels starting in 2023. The New York Power Authority's Board of Trustees recently approved 3,400 kW of power for "cheap hydro power" for the plant, Mr. Zembiec said.
With construction not yet begun of the first facility, a second manufacturing plant is in the works at the airport site.
The company is submitting some additional information for the first plant to the Hounsfield Planning Board, while it has started site plans for a second similar facility at the site near the airport, Mr. Zembiec said.
Plans for the DigiCollect facility, a software company that manufactures sensors for monitoring residential grids and transmission lines, have not begun yet, he said.
Convalt is a vertically integrated renewable energy company in the business of manufacturing solar panels, generating renewable power at company-owned power generation facilities, and providing engineering and construction services including solar panel recycling for renewable energy projects.
The Watertown facility would sell its solar panels to utility, commercial and residential solar customers in the U.S. and abroad.
