Batavia OKs deal to bring high-tech firm to town

A company that manufactures sapphire products that are used to make parts for high-tech electronic devices may soon set up shop in Batavia.

The Batavia City Council approved an electricity service agreement Monday for Rubicon Technologies Inc., which wants to move from its current location in Franklin Park to a building at 950 Douglas Road.

Electricity is key to the deal; the firm was attracted to Batavia because the city-owned electrical utility charges less than retail utilities and it can provide more reliable service. Batavia purchases electricity wholesale and resells it to customers.

Reliability of service is crucial - the sapphire products the company creates are used to make light-emitting diodes. Power outages and voltage dips can ruin the product.

The diodes are used in LCD televisions, traffic signals, desktop monitors and other optical-electronic products.

Rubicon will pay part of the costs of some additional transmission equipment that the city already was thinking about installing sometime in 2011.

In 2006, Batavia started a $22 million upgrade of its electrical system, including connecting to a high-power 138-kilovolt ComEd line that runs through the east side of Fermilab. It is considered a direct connection to the national power grid, unlike the previous service off a lower-volt line near the Fox River.

When fully functioning, Rubicon would be the city's largest utility customer.

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said he hopes this deal will bring other high-tech industries to Batavia, and patted the city on the back for its foresight in upgrading the electrical utility.

He compared it to former mayors Art Swanson and Bob Brown's campaign in the 1960s to annex 1,300 acres on the city's northeast side for an industrial park and run water and sewer out to a then-gravel Kirk Road. The area now employs about 5,000 people.

"What I really like about what we did here tonight is it's kind of like when they first put the park together," he said. "We're recommitting to the infrastructure."