The Buffalo News

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="602"] As construction continues at SolarCity, the solar energy systems installer has begun hiring its local staff. John Hickey/Buffalo News file photo[/caption]

"...'We’ll focus on hiring 300 to 400 for shift number one,' Beitel said. 'I’d say we’d start in November or December to have them on line in the middle of the first quarter, so that when the suppliers get through their equipment, we can start running a one-shift operation.'"

That will be a watershed moment for one of the region’s biggest economic development projects in decades, and the centerpiece of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion program. Under the initiative, the state is pumping $750 million into the SolarCity project to build the factory and purchase its equipment in an effort to turn the region into a center for solar panel manufacturing.

"...Beitel said the company plans to tap into the pool of graduates generated by local colleges and universities, as well as the State University of New York system across the state..."

“...We will be recruiting from SUNY campuses anyone that has device physics, PhDs, bachelor’s of science degrees,” Beitel said. “Part of the attractiveness of upstate New York ... is that there are a lot of semiconductor skill sets that have been added” through the growth of the computer chip industry in the Albany area..."

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By David Robinson | News Business Reporter