MARCY — Danfoss Silicon Power anticipates its silicon-carbide power module production plant on the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus will be in operation in the second half of 2018 with 60 to 75 employees.

That was the assessment of Michael Hennessey, the facility’s onsite general manager, this week when he spoke at the Mohawk Valley EDGE meeting. He highlighted what’s occurred inside the Quad-C building since his company announced in March it was going to open the plant at SUNY Poly and what’s coming in 2018. He’s overseeing the transformation of a vacant 202,000-square-foot building with two cleanrooms to a production facility that meets his company’s specifications.

“I was the first staff,” Hennessey told the group at the Hotel Utica and then launched into his review of what’s been accomplished in the last nine months and what remains to be done before power modules can be produced. He’s been in Marcy since shortly after the German company picked the Quad-C for its U.S. plant. 

The power modules are currently manufactured by the company in Germany.

The power modules are used in the industrial, automotive and alternative energy sectors. The company has provided power modules for more than 25 million cars around the world. 

The state is spending $100 million to upgrade and equip the Quad-C for Danfoss. The general manager said 160 tools and pieces of equipment are on order under 16 contracts. Tool deliveries begin in March. He estimates building modifications are 78 percent complete.

Hennessey said the plant has been designed for three production lines.

The company expects production, in collaboration with General Electric, to be underway by the third or fourth quarter. GE manufactures the silicon-carbide wafers for the modules at SUNY Poly’s Albany campus. 

General Electric will set up a dicing facility at the Quad-C to cut silicone-carbide chips from wafers.

Danfoss will then make modules and power blocks that house the chips.

The first dozen Danfoss employees started in October. Several more have been brought on since then. Operations personnel, manufacturing associates, logistics associates and engineers will be added throughout 2018

When all lines are operating full capacity, employment of about 300 is anticipated.

Danfoss is leasing the entire Quad-C and the equipment from the state.

This project supports and advances the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium, a public-private partnership along the upstate corridor in developing the next generation of semiconductor materials and packaging to enable the creation of smaller, faster and more efficient mobile devices.