Industry News

DuPont opened its photovoltaic technical center in Shanghai, China, in May of 2009. Located at the company’s global R&D center, the facility will support materials development for crystalline silicon photovoltaic products. Housing three laboratories, the center will accommodate cell to module manufacturing, metallization, and module and reliability testing. Total facility investment at the DuPont’s China R&D Center to date is estimated at $25 million.

National University of Ireland, Maynooth broke ground on a €15m research building in May of 2009. Located on the North Campus, the 4,500-sm facility will house the National Centre for Geocomputation, the National Institute for Research and Spatial Analysis, and An Foras Feasa, the Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions. The project will accommodate 350 students and 200 academic staff and researchers and is slated for completion in June of 2010. The building will include interdisciplinary research space and a 350-seat lecture hall.

A $334 million replacement hospital will be built in Fort Riley, Kan., to replace Irwin Army Community Hospital. The project includes a 263,000-sf hospital, a 289,000-sf clinic, a central energy plant, and support. The joint-venture preconstruction team is Walton Construction Co. of Kansas City and Balfour Beatty Construction of Dallas. Construction will begin in fall of 2009 with completion expected in spring of 2012.

Babcock University will break ground in June of 2009 on the $250 million College of Health and Medical Sciences in Ilisan Remo, Nigeria. The facility will house the schools of Medicine, Public and Allied Health, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Nursing. The project will include a biomedical research center and a 750-bed teaching hospital.

Althea Technologies opened its $15 million commercial-scale biologics manufacturing facility in San Diego in May of 2009. The 30,000-sf building will support sterile production of vaccines, therapeutics, and pharmaceuticals.