Willard & Kelsey Solar Group's problems should not discourage Ohio from continuing to invest in solar energy. Nor should it dampen hopes for renewable energy in general.
Like California-based Solyndra's high-profile bankruptcy, Willard & Kelsey's financial woes appear to stem from bad business decisions that are not related to the solar industry's market potential. But the Perrysburg-based solar panel manufacturer is likely to become the subject of more Solyndralike comparisons, as fossil-fuel lobbyists, opportunistic politicians, and other critics of renewable energy ramp up their attacks.
Solar energy employs 100,000 Americans in 5,600 companies. The industry realized an 85 percent increase in capacity during the first three months of 2012, after impressive gains in 2011.
The market for solar energy is growing, despite a perception that it has stalled or that people have soured on it. The average price of a residential solar system has come down from $50,000 to $25,000 in five years. Globally, investment in solar energy has increased from $17 billion in 2007 to $93 billion in 2011.
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Solar entrepreneurs expect the industry to evolve as demand shifts to it and other alternative-energy markets. Ohio lawmakers should stand firm on the state law that requires 12.5 percent of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. Just one-half of 1 percent must come from solar power.
Ohio was 11th among the states in new solar capacity in the first quarter of this year. Solar energy accounts for 6,000 of the state's 35,000 clean-energy jobs, largely a result of collaborations among providers and university and private researchers in northwest Ohio.
Ohio has 164 companies involved in solar production or distribution, 55 of them in manufacturing. The Spanish solar panel manufacturer Isofoton is building one of the state's largest facilities, a $31 million plant in Napoleon that is expected to employ 330 people when production starts this fall.
The Willard & Kelsey case raises questions about how Ohio officials monitor the startup loans they provide. The company got $10 million in state loans in mid-2010, along with a $500,000 grant.
Last year, the state learned that Willard & Kelsey had installed only one production line since it began in 2008. It never came close to creating the 450 jobs required by a $5 million Ohio Air Quality Development Authority loan, or the 400 jobs required by its $5 million loan from the Ohio Department of Development. The agencies have called in those loans.
Willard & Kelsey's travails amount to one company's sad tale of apparent mismanagement. It is not an indictment of solar energy's still-attractive potential.
First Published August 31, 2012, 4:00 a.m.
