David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, April 30, 2010 12:00 am

Tucson-based Sion Power Corp. has been awarded a $5 million federal grant to further develop its lithium-sulfur battery technology for use in electric cars.

The award, part of $106 million in grants nationwide announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Energy, will fund efforts to develop an ultra-high-energy battery that can power electric vehicles for more than 300 miles between charges.

The grant is part of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program, funded with federal stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

It follows an $800,000 grant the DOE awarded to Sion in June for battery research.

Sion’s approach uses new manufacturing processes and barrier layers within the batteries to improve cycle life – the number of times a battery can be recharged – as well as safety.

Dale Quinn Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Monday, April 26, 2010 12:00 am

Tucson is featured on the cover of a business publication along with an article highlighting the area’s solar industry.

Business Facilities: The Location Advisor calls Tucson “The Solar City” on the cover of its April 2010 edition.

“Arizona’s vast desert areas offer the highest solar power potential in America,” the article says. It describes Tucson as the home to “some of the world’s leading photovoltaic manufacturers,” including Schletter Inc., Global Solar Energy and Solon Corp.

Laura Shaw, a spokeswoman with Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, said her organization was approached by the publication shortly after the announcement that the solar company Bell Independent Power Corp. had come to the area.

Posted: Friday, April 23, 2010 12:00 am
Arizona Daily Star

Raytheon Co., one of the country’s biggest defense contractors and Southern Arizona’s biggest employer, said first-quarter profits fell slightly, mostly due to employee pension expenses.

At Raytheon’s Tucson-based Missile System business unit, sales slipped slightly from first-quarter last year, while operating income was flat.

Raytheon maintained its forecast for the year and its revenue rose.

The parent company earned $445 million, or $1.16 per share, compared with $452 million, or $1.12 per share a year earlier.

Net income fell while per-share income rose because the company bought back stock, shrinking the number of outstanding shares.

Without the pension expense, the company earned $487 million, or $1.27 per share, compared with $442 million, or $1.09 per share in the first quarter of 2009.

Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Inside Tucson Business

Phoenix-based American Solar Electric has announced plans to expand into Tucson.

The company, which designs and installs solar electric systems, says it intends to have a regional sales office in Tucson by mid-year which hopefully, can lead to the establishment of a construction facility in Southern Arizona.

In an effort to co-locate both sales and construction facilities in one location, Will Herndon, co-owner of American Solar Electric, says the company is looking at sites along Interstate 10 on the northwest side. Herndon is also the company’s executive vice president for construction. Besides Tucson, the company is also looking to move into the Prescott and Flagstaff areas.

“Plans for expanding our operations have been in development for over a year and we believe making these moves will position the company for continued success in Arizona,” said Sean Seitz, president and the other co-owner.

Deoxyribonucleic acid — better known as DNA — it’s the organic document that contains the blueprints for everything we’re made up of, including things we don’t even know yet.

April 25 was National DNA Day. It commemorates the successful completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and the discovery of DNA’s double helix by Drs. James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953. The genome is the entirety of an organism’s hereditary information and it is encoded in a person’s DNA.

“Since the conclusion of the Human Genome Project we have seen rapid progress in the genomic sciences that is revolutionizing many areas, such as the diagnosis and cure of disease, forensics and biofuels,” said Robert S. Green, president and CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association. “Tucson has been a hotbed of activity in all of these fields with cutting edge work being conducted not only at the University of Arizona but at large and small bioscience companies and organizations right in our midst. Tucson has a proud history in this area and portends great things to come.”

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, April 20, 2010 12:00 am

Raytheon Missile Systems, Southern Arizona’s largest employer, laid off about 225 salaried workers Monday, its first mass layoff since 2002.

The Tucson-based company, the world’s largest missile maker, has added hundreds of workers in the past few years, but it saw three major programs canceled recently due to defense budget cuts. However, Raytheon said the layoffs were part of a larger, periodic realignment of resources.

“To better align our work force to meet current and future business requirements, and achieve the right mix of talent to remain competitive in the marketplace, Raytheon Missile Systems is reducing staffing levels,” Raytheon spokesman John Patterson said in an e-mail statement.

The employees will be offered severance benefits and outplacement help, he said. Raytheon would not discuss the job descriptions of the laid-off workers or the specific departments affected.

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, April 18, 2010 12:00 am

Raytheon’s Excalibur satellite-guided artillery shell appears back on course after a guidance problem sidetracked the program for much of last year.

That’s good timing for Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems – the region’s biggest employer – as it braces for a billion-dollar decision on who will make the next generation of the precision strike weapon.

A Raytheon official said the company is confident in its new design headed into a competitive “shoot-off” this summer with its rival for the Army program, Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc.

David Brockway, business-development manager for Raytheon’s Excalibur program, said the company is confident of its next-generation Excalibur design after conducting a series of test firings.

“We’re hitting aim points within a few meters,” Brockway said.