Lower-Cost Electricity to Help Create Nearly 60 Jobs in Green Island, Supporting Company’s Relocation to the Village

Contact
Michael Saltzman
914-390-8181
michael.saltzman@nypa.gov

printer-friendly version
                                                                                               

May 24, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 WHITE PLAINS—The New York Power Authority (NYPA) Trustees Tuesday approved a lower-cost power allocation to the Green Island municipal electric system, for Crystal IS, which produces materials for semiconductor devices.

The company is relocating from nearby Watervliet for an expansion of its manufacturing capability and creation of 57 new jobs over the next three years. It currently has a work force of 17.

“We’re providing 300 kilowatts (kw) of economical power to support the expansion of this very important company, which is integrally tied to a new generation of semiconductor devices,” said Louis P. Ciminelli, NYPA chairman. “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the village’s municipal electric system—the Green Island Power Authority—in supporting Crystal’s ambitious expansion plans, as it moves into a building with additional space for the increased demand for its product.”

This is the fourth allocation over the last two years that NYPA has made to the Green Island municipal electric system for expanding businesses. (The other allocations went to Silhouette Optical, the Case Group and Sealy Mattress, for multimillion dollar expansions involving new facilities and additional jobs.) The Power Authority trustees approved the latest allocation at their regularly scheduled meeting, held this month at NYPA’s White Plains office.

The power for Crystal and the other companies is from a block of 108,000 kw reserved for economic development in areas served by New York’s 51 municipal electric systems and rural cooperatives. These are systems whose full or partial electricity requirements are met by the New York Power Authority.

Half of the power for the eligible companies under the economic development program is low-cost hydropower from NYPA’s Niagara Power Project near Niagara Falls.

The remaining half is available from other economical power sources. Municipal systems like Green Island also have the option of purchasing this amount on their own from other sources.

Crystal IS currently occupies a 6,000-square-foot space in an incubator building of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for start-up businesses.

The company’s new facility in Green Island has 10,500-square feet. The total relocation investment exceeds $1 million.

Crystal, which serves markets in the U.S. and Japan, produces single-crystal aluminum nitride (AIN) substrates for high-performance electronic and optoelectronic semiconductor devices. The applications include air and water purification, military and biomedical devices, and wireless communications.