LI exec seeking funds to make solar panels
Infosys chief executive Raj Mehta, in his Plainview office, shows sketches for solar panels to be produced by his new business, Resq Solar Corp. (May 2010) Credit: Kathy Kmonicek
Raj Mehta, founder and chief executive of Plainview-based software consulting company Infosys International Inc., loves to sing and tell jokes, and has even placed in his office an electronic music keyboard, which he is learning to play.
But there is no playing or joking in his voice when he talks about his latest plan - to build solar panels on Long Island, which Mehta says would help bring manufacturing back to the region and create about 150 new jobs.
"I want to help put Long Island back on the map" when it comes to manufacturing, Mehta said over breakfast at a diner Friday not far from his office. "This [his plan] could start a manufacturing industry here."
Mehta, who came to this country from India in 1978 with $6 in his pocket and started privately held Infosys 24 years ago from the bedroom of his Commack home, says a survey he did recently showed no other company on the Island, or in the state, is manufacturing solar panels, although such work is being done in some countries abroad.
Mehta said he would bring something else to the table: a chemical process that would make the solar panels flexible, so that they could fit easily atop roofs that are crooked, or even on helmets or jackets.
There is, of course, a major issue: capital. Mehta said he has spoken to family and friends, figuring he needs about $45 million to open a new factory and get the business going.
Those he has talked to, he said, are enthusiastic about the idea. But nothing can happen, Mehta said, until he can secure some capital. Mehta plans to speak with more government officials and venture capitalists in the next few months.
He also has talked to Nassau and Suffolk officials as well as to Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington).
Israel noted that federal funding for solar projects has soared in the last few years, and that he supported Mehta's plan.
"I'm on a relentless mission to make Long Island the clean capital of the country," Israel said. "Raj is where [the former] Grumman company was in the late 1950s and '60s. He's just ahead of the wave."
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