Intel's solar spinoff heads to New York

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- SpectraWatt Inc.--the solar-cell spinoff of Intel Corp.--has moved its operations from Oregon and will establish the company's first factory and its new headquarters at the Hudson Valley Research Park in Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

SpectraWatt will also move into a plant that was owned by IBM Corp. The solar startup will reportedly retrofit IBM's Building 334 on the IBM campus in that area, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

The move would initially create over 100 jobs in the New York region within the first year of operation. The company, which is in the process of moving from their previous location in Oregon, reportedly had trouble finding and funding a suitable site in that state.

Instead, it will set up shop in New York. The company aims to be in production early in 2010. SpectraWatt's first factory line will have an initial manufacturing capacity of 60 megawatts (MW); additional lines are already being planned with site capacity exceeding 120-MW within the first two years of operation.

Last year, Intel said it was spinning off key assets of a start-up business effort inside its New Business Initiatives group to form an independent company called SpectraWatt. Intel Capital, Intel's investment organization, led a $50 million investment round in SpectraWatt and was joined by Cogentrix Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund and Solon AG.