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The buzz about the success of the Sandia Science & Technology Park is well beyond a hum.

The tech park, located outside the Eubank entrance to Sandia National Laboratories, is now home to one of the largest publicly-traded companies in New Mexico. Park tenant Emcore Corp. announced Monday that it is moving its corporate headquarters to Albuquerque from New Jersey.

In fact, the buzz is out-of-this-world, so to speak, with Emcore's ribbon-cutting ceremony for its photovoltaic solar-cell manufacturing facility expansion, coinciding with the HQ-move announcement. The expansion adds 20,000 square feet to the 150,000-square-foot building already there - increasing the company's capacities for making solar power-generating systems on satellites for NASA, the European Space Agency, and other illustrious organizations. Emcore will be adding 100 new jobs to the 430 jobs at the site.

Not to be lost in all the good news, Emcore also announced that the company will make "utility-scale" solar power panels for terrestrial applications. What this means is that Emcore is targeting the PNM-type power generation markets for its photovoltaic systems. If it all works for Emcore, some component of your home or business electricity will come from solar powered sources in the near future, a monumental breakthrough in our quest for alternative energies.

The Sandia Science & Technology Park is the eight-year-old brainchild of Dan Hartley, former vice president at Sandia Labs, and Sherman McCorkle, CEO at Technology Ventures Corporation. From their vision and contributions of many others, the tech park has grown into an impressive community of technology companies and entrepreneurs.

Most of the companies in the technology park are leveraging their proximity to Sandia, supplying the lab and the Air Force with key technologies and technical services, if not also doing collaborative research and development with them. Some of the companies, like Emcore, are external market-directed sell-to-the-world efforts that draw on Sandia's and the Air Force's world-class science and technology to greatly leverage the regional economic impacts of their labors.

The net results of the technology park are 24 companies and 1,500 jobs that pay $55,000 per year, on average more than $30,000 more than the average pay across all employment sectors.

Jackie Kerby Moore, the park's executive director from the beginning, has been the tireless champion for its growth. Jackie's story is one of a local-girl-making-good, graduating from St. Pius and New Mexico State University, before joining Sandia Labs. Jackie has just concluded her term as chairwoman for the august Association of University Research Parks, an organization representing parks like the Sandia Science & Technology Park globally.

By way of disclosure, I serve on the the technology park's community advisory council and Jackie was a good friend of mine in college, so I am honored to report on her significant contributions. I attended the Emcore ceremonies on Monday and had a chance to share in all the excitement.

Jackie said that she has most enjoyed being on the leading edge for technology-based economic development in New Mexico. That type of development gives our graduates opportunities to pursue some of the highest paying jobs, evidenced by the technology park's job statistics. She also notes that the park has helped heighten the community and political awareness for other technology parks in the state, like the Science and Technology Center at the University of New Mexico and Arrowhead at NMSU.

Another bonus from attending the Emcore event was visiting with Rob Bryan, one of the senior technical leaders at Emcore and a bellwether for the great tech entrepreneurship potential in the region. Although he did not have a speaking role from the rostrum, Rob was one of the founders of Micro Optical Devices, the startup company spun-out of Sandia in the mid-1990's that was acquired by Emcore, leading to the good news this week.

Our region's economic successes take entrepreneurs like Rob to manifest progress - not to be lost in the crowd of credit. Kudos, Rob! And thanks to Dan, Sherman, and Jackie, we have a place for it all to happen.