Another German company in the solar-energy industry is making a home in Tucson.
Schletter Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of solar mounting systems, has set up U.S. operations in Tucson at 2520 N. Jackrabbit Ave., north of West Grant Road just west of Interstate 10. The company expects the facility to be fully operational in June, with up to 15 local employees by the end of 2008 and up to 40 by the end of 2009. Positions will include sales and marketing jobs in addition to manufacturing jobs.
The company joins another company with German roots, Solon America Corp. — a subsidiary of Berlin-based Solon AG — which also is partial owner of Tucson-based Global Solar Energy Inc., a maker of thin-film solar photovoltaics.
Schletter looked at locations in Phoenix and Flagstaff, as well as cities in Colorado and California, before settling on Tucson "based on living costs, taxes and shipping costs," company CEO Martin Hausner said in a statement.
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Schletter has worked in the design and manufacturing of steel and aluminum products over the course of more than 40 years in Europe and has supplied utility-size photovoltaic projects. Its 22,000-square-foot Tucson facility will design, develop and manufacture Schletter products.
Attraction and expansion of solar companies is a top business-development strategy for Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc., the area's economic-development agency, said Sharon Bronson, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors and co-chairwoman of TREO's board of directors.
Schletter's move is the latest in a series of local expansion moves among solar firms in the past year.
In March, Global Solar moved into a new, 110,000-square-foot factory at 8500 S. Rita Road.
Last month, Solon America said it had leased a 101,266-square-foot building at 6950 S. Country Club Road.
New York-based Prism Solar Technologies Inc. — which manufactures a new kind of photovoltaic module that uses holographic technology to maximize energy collection — opened a research and development facility here in June 2007.
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