NITA LOWEY FOR CONGRESS

If alternative energy is the future, then Port Chester-based Mercury Solar Systems, which installs solar energy systems in homes and businesses, is in a good position to take advantage of a growing industry.

On a visit to the company’s Port Chester headquarters Monday, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) touted the company as a producer of local jobs in a struggling economy. Lowey believes that alternative will be a major part of the future of American manufacturing.

“He is creating jobs,” said Lowey of the company’s President Jared Haines. That’s not an easy task these days, she added, especially in these “tough, difficult times.”

Mercury Solar Systems, which moved its central offices from New Rochelle to Port Chester in September 2009, employs 70 people at its Port Chester location, according to Haines. They have approximately 125 full-time employees in total.

On Monday, employees were installing solar panels with pipes, glass sheets, rods and strings onto the roof of the company’s 36 Midland Ave. building. The solar panels were part of a 10-panel set which is expected to produce 70% of the building’s electricity.

The panels are part of an experimental “lab,” as Haines called it, to test the output of different tilt angles. Haines said it was the largest such test lab on the East Coast.

Each set of panels creates eight kilowatt hours of electricity for every hour of sunlight that hits them. The panels are a $300,000 investment, with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority covering two-thirds of the cost.

Haines said the cost of the installation of solar panels for the average homeowner is about $7,000. The amount of electricity savings for the household depends on the amount of energy they use, he said.

Haines co-founded the company in 2006 out of a 12- by 12-foot office in New Rochelle. He said the company has come a long way to its current 22,000-square-foot headquarters in Port Chester. The company has warehouses in Connecticut, Long Island, Atlantic City and Pennsylvania. Mercury Solar Systems has also installed solar panels on the roof of the Strauss Paper warehouse next door.

Haines is projecting more than $60 million in revenue for his company this year. The company has installed more than 1,000 systems and he thinks the company is just at the beginning of its gains. “I think the growth (of the industry) is still at the bottom of the bell curve,” he said.

Mercury Solar Systems employs a variety of workers, from laborers and clerical staff to engineers and business professionals.

Lowey noted that the stimulus bill passed in 2009, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, allocated billions for investments in clean energy technology and stated that the federal government offers tax credits to those who purchase and install solar energy systems.

The technology investments have been directed to the manufacturers of the alternative energy products, which Haines supports, because 75% of his costs are material purchases. “If the subsidies are there for a long period of time, people will invest,” he said.

“We’re in a tough hole,” said the Congresswoman. “He is making us independent of BP and foreign countries that control the oil.”