News
Petra Solar Jumpstarts Hiring At Today's Job Fair
Electricians and technicians apply for green jobs
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ (August 14, 2009) - Electricians and other technicians seeking green jobs in the solar energy field today submitted employment applications to Petra Solar, a South Plainfield based company. The company recently entered into a $200M contract to provide the world's largest distributed solar generation system to PSE&G. Petra hosted a job fair today to jumpstart the first stage of production capacity ramp up to provide 200,000 solar generation units over the next 3½ years. Petra's hiring effort is expected to add 100 new jobs by next summer.
"We've made the transition from startup to ramp up in a few short years, and we need your help," CEO and President Shihab Kuran told applicants as he greeted them at the job fair. "Since we formed our company in 2006, we have focused on innovating solar technology with smart grid communications and electric grid enhancement functions specifically designed for utilities. By creating products for the country's leading energy companies, our clean tech solutions benefit large numbers of people. We are growing rapidly and will be tripling our workforce as we manufacture pole-mounted, grid-connected photovoltaic systems for utilities and introduce products for the commercial and residential markets."
"The schedule to manufacture the solar units is ambitious," Kuran said, "so our hiring efforts must be as well. In just over a month we will have ramped to shipping hundreds of the units off the production line on a weekly basis. By early next year, Petra Solar will be manufacturing 1,500 units a week."
At today's job fair, Petra Solar was interviewing candidates for jobs as electrical mechanical assemblers, production test technicians and supervisors. Job seekers had been asked to bring their resumes, and during the fair they completed an applicant form. Petra staff conducted initial screenings and told applicants they will follow up with promising candidates next week. Petra hopes to hire 15 new employees within the next few weeks as a result of the job fair.
Since entering the contract with PSE&G on July 29, Petra has added seven new employees, bringing the total count to 43. Successful applicants from today's job fair will undergo a comprehensive training program prior to integration into the assembly operation. This kick-off event is the first of several hiring actions planned over the next five to six weeks that will increase staff in a structured manner. This is essential so that each new round of employees can be trained create SunWave systems of the highest quality for Petra's customers. All full-time employees will receive Petra Solar's generous benefits package, which includes ownership in the privately held company.
Other positions being filled over the next year include research and development, manufacturing, finance, sales, marketing, administration and operations.
Kuran founded Petra Solar in late 2006, but its business reflects 16 years of research and more than 20 pending and published patents. Kuran, who holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the City University of New York, has spent nearly two decades pursuing commercial applications of clean tech, with an emphasis on water and solar energy.
For the contract with PSE&G, the 200,000 units will collectively add a distributed generation system of 40 megawatts DC to PSE&G's generation capacity. This represents half of the utility's projected solar-generated power under its Solar 4 All initiative, which the N.J. Board of Public Utilities approved on July 29.
Petra Solar is presently in discussion with more than a dozen other utilities throughout the country about providing the SunWave system for solar generation, smart grid connectivity and enhanced grid performance through the its "intelligent solar solution."
About Petra Solar:
Petra Solar, founded in 2006 by CEO and President Dr. Shihab Kuran, is the pioneer of grid tied, pole mounted, distributed solar generation systems. The SunWave™ system combines solar energy with smart grid communications and electric grid enhancement functions to create a comprehensive utility grade solution for utilities.
For more information, see www.petrasolar.com.
Media queries, please contact Becky Taylor becky.taylor@petrasolar.com