![]() Katolight systems provide backup power for the Beijing newspaper in China and Telesat-Satellite Communications in Macau. or Canada, but there have been some impressive foreign sales. The company produces gensets ranging from 5-kilowatt (big enough to run your furnace and keep a few lights on) to 2,000-kilowatt (big enough to run a small factory). Steel-paneled, sound-insulated cabinets are built around some of the generator sets, known in the industry as “gensets.” (Some of the engines have enough muscle to power trucks or four-wheel-drive tractors.) Company technicians build electronic controls and switching gears for the matched units to create a unified system that’s ready to be wired into a customer’s site. Marathon Electric, Wausau, Wisc., manufactures nearly all the generators, which Katolight connects to engines made by Cummins, Detroit Diesel, General Motors, John Deere, Mitsubishi and Volvo. ![]() Katolight creates emergency power generation systems, matching various engines with generators, then adding the necessary wiring and controls. “Y2K made a lot of people think about the possibility of losing power,” Jacobson said. And there’s an emerging residential market as homeowners begin to fret about the dependability of their electric utility. Farms have “critical needs for power,” Jacobson said, especially if they have dairy herds or confinement buildings for hogs or poultry. Katolight’s agricultural division accounts for another 25 percent. Such sales bring in 70 percent of Katolight’s $50 million in annual revenues. ![]() These customers include hospitals, nursing homes, apartment complexes with elevators and emergency lighting, data processing centers, telecommunications companies, wastewater treatment plants and other industries. Jacobson heads Mankato’s Katolight Corp., which supplies emergency power generation systems to customers who must continue operating despite rolling blackouts or ice storms. Instead, he discovered life (and opportunities) outside the realm of space.įor 24 years, he’s helped provide peace of mind to people whose feet are rooted firmly on earth, not in the stratosphere. Despite his training as an aeronautical engineer, Lyle Jacobson never designed soaring rockets or jet aircraft for a living.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |