The San Jose, Calif.-based manufacturing company, which has more than 500 employees in Ottawa, said it's partnered with SPARQ Systems Inc. to make new microinverters and communications hubs for solar photovoltaic systems for the consumer market.
"We're committed to helping the clean technology sector grow to its full potential. Partnering with companies like SPARQ to bring innovative new products to market is important to Sanmina-SCI's overall clean technology strategy," said Tom Clawson, executive vice-president of Sanmina's industrial markets division, in a statement. "We have brought hundreds of highly complex products to market and this deep knowledge of new product introductions enables us to bring products like SPARQ's new microinverters to market quickly and efficiently."
The agreement is the third such pact for Sanmina's local facility in less than three months: in April, the firm signed a deal with Missouri firm Emerson, and then in May it teamed up with San Francisco-based Santerno. Both partnerships were also for the manufacturing of solar inverters.
Following Sanmina's US$53-million acquisition of Ottawa-based rival BreconRidge in May 2010, the manufacturing company has been capitalizing on its Ontario positioning to secure projects under the province's Feed-In Tariff program.
The move has been positively received by the local community, who view it as a great new opportunity to get in on a clean-tech market that's largely been dominated by southern Ontarian competitors.
Kenneth Roots, co-chair of the Eastern Ontario Manufacturers Network's Ottawa chapter, remarked in an e-mail to OBJ that his organization hoped recent solar inverter wins would draw more attention to the region "as a viable manufacturing centre for the growing clean-tech industry." As well, he said he hoped the deals would help to revitalize the battered local tech manufacturing sector, which has been badly affected by the recent economic troubles.
At 1:07 p.m., shares of Sanmina were up 11 cents to $10.36 on the Nasdaq.
