SATCON ein neuer stern

The Boston-based company is expanding its presence in the city as the solar industry trends more toward multi-megawatt solar projects, which require power inverters like the ones made by SatCon. The company plans to double its office space and hire 40 additional staff for Boston in early 2011, said Michael Levi, senior director of worldwide marketing.

Meanwhile, SatCon is also looking to expand its North American manufacturing of inverters, Levi said. SatCon expects the expansion would increase its production capacity by 500 megawatts or more, which would lead the company to add about 40 new jobs, he said.

“We are evaluating where that (expansion) would be now,” Levi said. “We don’t have a location earmarked, but there is a potential that could be in Boston.”

Alternatively, SatCon may choose to do the expansion in California or Ontario, where the company also has operations, Levi said.

The advantage of adding manufacturing in Boston would be the proximity to the company’s engineering department, which is located in Drydock Center in South Boston’s Marine Industrial Park, Levi said. If SatCon decides to target the new manufacturing for Boston, it would most likely be located in a separate facility from the Drydock facility, he said.

The company expects to decide on the location for the new manufacturing site during the first half of 2011, Levi said.

At SatCon’s headquarters in South Boston, operations include corporate and engineering staff and employ a total of 150, he said. The operations currently occupy 27,500 square feet of space at 27 Drydock Ave., Levi said.

By the early second quarter of 2011, SatCon plans to move those operations down the block to space that is nearly double that size — 52,000 square feet — at 23 and 25 Drydock Ave., Levi said.

The company already maintains its product introduction center — which has 50 megawatts of manufacturing capacity — at 25 Drydock Ave., he said.

The company saw third quarter revenue grow nearly 500 percent from the same period a year earlier, rising to $58.4 million for the quarter. Satcon had previously provided guidance of between $43 million and $47 million in revenue for the quarter.