by Andrew Henderson

A solar-panel production company is considering the Riverview Business Park for a new plant, according to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

Solar Array Ventures, a Texas-based company, is looking for a location for a new plant. The Riverview Business Park, the former Miller Brewing facility and home to Northeast Biofuels, is among the finalists for a location for the new plant.

Sen. Schumer said that he has made personal appeals to the company’s CEO Joe Hudgins and CFO Buddy Rogers to moved into the Volney site. Sen. Schumer said he touted New York’s work force, the region’s available space, and the state’s financial incentives.

“A new solar-panel plant in Fulton would be a win-win for the region and the company,” said Sen. Schumer. “Central New York offers the finest work force, critical space, and key financial incentives for the company, and the new plant would create hundreds of new jobs and give a shot in the arm to the local economy.

“Fulton and central New York are home to some of the state’s finest green businesses and a new solar panel plant there makes perfect sense,” he added. “In my call to Solar Array Ventures CFO Buddy Rogers, I touted the region’s top-notch workforce and told him I would do everything I could to bring the company to New York State.”

A start-up company, Solar Array Ventures plans to produce large solar panels used by utility companies and companies producing large amounts of electricity. The company has initial sale orders scheduled for the second quarter of 2010.

Its web site states, “Solar Array Ventures will manufacture and market a new class of solar panel targeting large-scale solar-power applications such as solar farms, commercial and industrial rooftops, and Building Integrated PhotoVoltaic (BIPV). The manufacturing scaleability of our Thin-Film on Glass technology is truly revolutionary, and are our production processes are eco-friendly: making minimal use exotic and/or toxic materials, embodied energy, and potable water.”

According to the senator, the first phase of the project would require approximately 250,000 square feet of space and employ about 250 people. The second phase would require an additional 250,000 square feet of space and employ an additional 250 people.

New York State and Oswego County have already offered the company several financial incentives, including tax credits and savings. The incentives include a 20-year PILOT program to the company.

“Oswego County and the entire state would welcome Solar Array Ventures with open arms and give them access to space, a world-class work force, and good economic base,” said Sen. Schumer. “I urge Solar Array Ventures to take a close look at all that central New York has to offer and decide to locate its top-notch company in Fulton.”

A solar-panel production plant may fall in line at the business park, according to an energy-asset management-and-development plan that was completed earlier this year.

Operation Oswego County, the county’s designated economic-development agency, was awarded $134,389 from National Grid last year to contract with a Syracuse-based engineering firm for the creation of a master plan for energy-asset management and development at Riverview Business Park.

According to officials, the plan analyzed existing energy assets, projected future needs and opportunities, and quantified as well as qualified potential solutions with an emphasis on renewable and innovative technologies at the former site of the Miller Brewing company.

“This is a substantial plan,” Tim Barry, senior vice president for O’Brien and Gere, said during Operation Oswego County’s annual meeting at SUNY Oswego earlier this year. “This is something that I think we can achieve.

“We would be the marquis site in New York for this type of eco-industrial thing,” he added. “All those buzz words—we would be. This is a visionary type of thing. This is not one of those things you will do next weekend. We engineers can connect the dots and draw all the stuff on paper, but it really takes people to make this happen.”

The guiding principles of the Riverside Business Park project are the use of renewable resources, a marriage of ecology and agriculture with industry, high-efficiency output, and the formation of a closed-loop system with natural feedback. The end goal is to produce an entity that capitalizes on the natural resources of the region and that will achieve a balance with its surroundings while providing an important boost for the local economy and a source of distinction for the region.

The plan considered the park’s other assets, including the powerhouse, installed by Miller in the ’70s during the last energy crisis, and the waste-water treatment plant. There is a six-megawatt turbine generator to help make more energy-efficient power. The waste-water treatment plant has been marketed as a positive draw for the site.