Danfoss Silicon Power today welcomed the first employees to its Utica, New York facility — marking progress toward full operation of its silicon-carbide (SiC) power module production. In March 2017, the company announced that it would establish production of SiC power modules in Utica.
Danfoss Power Electronics packaging facility at QUAD-C will advance New York’s leadership in next-generation semiconductor research, development, and commercial fabrication to meet the global demand for smaller, faster, and more efficient devices.
This will expand the scope of the Nano Utica initiative from computer chip commercialization into power electronics applications for industrial products such as wind turbines, utility-scale solar inverters, data centers and electric cars. GE’s advancements in silicon carbide (SiC) technology play an important enabling role.
Kim Fausing, Danfoss CEO
“It is a true pleasure to be here today, to see this facility being ramped up and be part of the on-boarding of the new colleagues in the Danfoss family. This is certainly a very important step for Danfoss, and we see a huge potential in the production here in Utica,” said Kim Fausing, Danfoss CEO.
At today’s visit, Kim Fausing and several other Danfoss executives were joined by Chairman of the Danfoss Board Jørgen Mads Clausen, CFO Jesper Christensen, Segment President Vesa Laisi, and Danfoss Silicon Power General Manager Claus A. Petersen, and John Galyen, President of Danfoss, North America.
The company recently took over the Quad-C facility at the State University of New York (SUNY)’s Utica campus as part of a transatlantic collaboration with General Electric through New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium (NY-PEMC). The private-public consortium and other similar programs were established in 2014 by the state of New York with a total investment of more than $20 billion USD for the creation of high-tech jobs.
Danfoss previously appointed a general manager for the new Danfoss Utica site, Mike Hennessey, who began to ramp up the business soon after the March announcement.
“We’re making great progress, including starting up construction and ordering equipment and hiring our first employees. This is just the beginning of our exciting business journey that will expand the scope of the Nano Utica initiative from computer chip commercialization into power electronic applications for industrial products in many clean energy applications,” commented Hennessey.
Danfoss Silicon Power is planning for full operation of the facility by mid-2018, and expects to create hundreds of jobs in the coming years. The cooperation with GE is also well under way and, over the past several months, GE and Danfoss cooperated on development of new products that will bring long-term advantage to the Quad-C operation.
Part of the Danfoss Group, which has more than 25,000 employees globally, Danfoss Silicon Power is a leading manufacturer of power modules used in a wide range of applications for the industrial,
