Energy Vanguard Has Eyes On Central Mass.
Solar panel company shopping for space
It's no secret that operating a business in Boston is far more expensive than it is in the Worcester region.
But as of yet that price differential hasn't been enough to drive a huge influx of businesses to see Central Massachusetts as the new frontier for growth.
But that may be changing, at least in the eyes of one entrepreneur.
John Palmer, a resident of Sudbury, worked for Cambridge-based biotechnology powerhouse Biogen Idec for 17 years before retiring last fall. But as president and CEO of a startup called Vanguard Solar, he said he wants no part of the exorbitant rents and time-wasting traffic of Cambridge, and wishes instead to establish his operation once and for all in Central Massachusetts.
John Palmer, president and CEO of Vanguard Solar, is looking for space locally for his corporate HQ.Location, Location, Location
Palmer said his company is looking for 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of developmental lab space in or around the Westborough, Northborough, Marlborough or Southborough area, or perhaps even further west towards Worcester. He hopes to find a site so Vanguard Solar can begin in earnest marketing its product - a lightweight, highly flexible thin solar energy film.
Vanguard Solar was co-founded by a NASA engineer who worked at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and a chemistry professor at Rice University in Houston. The company is currently housed at incubator space at Rice.
Palmer, who was brought on board in January of this year to serve as president and CEO of the company, said neither Texas nor Ohio was the right fit for the firm's future corporate headquarters.
"Alternative energy is a big deal in Massachusetts, there's a lot of commitment to it," Palmer said. "Energy in Houston means oil, so if you're not talking oil, Houston doesn't pay much attention. In Ohio, there's some chatter, but it's not the same."
In addition, Palmer said this region has the skilled workforce his company needs.
Palmer said his company needs only modest space for research and development, with no need for a large, multi-million dollar production complex. Part of its core product's innovation is that it can be manufactured at any existing roll-to-roll film processing or specialty printing site.
Vanguard Solar's pitch is that through a unique chemical process and innovative applications of nanotechnology it can produce an end product with similar efficiencies to more traditional rigid solar panels, without the size or cost, Palmer said.
Imagine the flexibility of a large roll of tin foil, able to be molded on top of or in the shape of virtually anything, except imagine that every inch of it is a solar panel, and you get the idea of what Palmer's product is like. It is safe to touch and should prove to be very durable, he said.
He said his company plans on contracting for 5 to 8 percent of a given plant's capacity without investing heavily in equipment or distribution infrastructure upgrades. Utilizing existing facilities will help make the product less expensive, Palmer said.
Vanguard was established through an Air Force-sponsored research grant, and continues its work on the government's dime today. Palmer was brought on board in part to help the company seek venture funding beyond its current grants, he said.
Down The Road
Palmer said the company's goal is to continue refining and developing the product through 2008, establish pilot manufacturing and sales deals in 2009, and begin commercial operations by 2010.
If and when Palmer decides to locate his company in the area, he will face significant local competition. Evergreen Solar is in the process of building a large manufacturing plant for its more traditional solar panels at Devens. Konarka Technologies Inc., which manufactures a similar, but less efficient, according to Palmer, solar film that it calls "power plastic," operates its global headquarters out of Lowell.
For now, those companies and Vanguard should be able to co-exist nicely in the state, providing a welcome boost to the area's burgeoning clean energy sector, said Warren Leon, director of the state's Renewable Energy Trust, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, based in Westborough.
"In the short and medium term, the solar market is growing so fast that new technologies will not take over from existing ones any time soon," Leon said. "To the extent that these new technologies do turn out to be more cost effective, it would be a significant number of years before they pushed existing ones aside."
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