Magnetek Inc, a manufacturer of power conditioners for commercial fuel cells, has revealed details of a reorganization plan designed to help the company improve its penetration of alternative energy markets.
Alternative energy products currently account for less than 5% of our quarter-billion-dollar annual revenue, said Magnetek chief executive Andrew Galef. But that revenue has the potential to increase exponentially over the next few years, based on double-digit growth rates in alternative energy markets and proprietary power conversion products that we are now introducing for solar and wind power markets.
Developed by Magnetek’s Power Electronics business group in Valdarno, Italy and its Power Control Systems business group in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, these products, together with the company’s existing fuel cell power conditioners, will be consolidated into a separate Alternative Energy business group.
Designed primarily for the residential market, the flagship of Magnetek’s solar product offering is the Aurora photovoltaic (PV) power inverter.
Magnetek also has two entries in the wind market: its 4.6-kilowatt MWI multimode wind inverter, introduced to the European market last year for stand-alone and grid-tied installations; and a modular wind power converter, about to be introduced in the US market, that can be installed in 625-kilowatt modules or 2.5-megawatt power clusters to accommodate most utility-scale wind-turbine configurations.
For decades alternative and renewable energy sources have been fighting an uphill battle with comparatively cheap power from existing fossil-fuel-fired and nuclear plants, added Mr Galef. But finally the tide is changing. Solar and wind, like hydro, deliver pollution-free power with no added fuel costs; and with incentives available in the US, Europe and Japan today, both wind and solar have reached installed-cost parity with ‘old-power’ plants.