Energy company comes to New Bedford

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.—After years of manufacturing moving out of Southern New England, in New Bedford it is moving back in.

The new company on the block is Konarka Technologies. It creates a new product that converts light into energy, and in the process it’s creating jobs.

“I also think it means there’s going to be a synergy to bring more alternative energy companies here to New Bedford,“ Mayor Scott Lang said.

For Konarka, New Bedford was the perfect fit because it’s moving into an old Polaroid plant and the underlying technology equipment they will use will be the same.

“Polaroid’s expertise was laying thin layers of film on plastic that’s exactly what we do—only the end use is very different,“ said Rick Hess of Konarka Technologies.

Konarka said it will be using a lot of the people who lost their jobs when the Polaroid plant closed.

“The South Coast is well positioned. There are skilled workers here to have precision machinery skills and precision plastics skills and they’re adapting those skills to the new technologies,“ said Daniel O’Connell, Mass. secretary of Housing and Economic Development.

“We weren’t able to hire all of the workforce that was here,“ Hess said. “We hired the core. The hope is as we grow we’ll be able to attract and bring back some of the former workers as well as bring in new people to the area.“

Konarka said it expects to employ about two dozen for now with plans to hire another 100 in the next couple of years.