Local solar companies don’t reflect report’s shine

BOULDER – Colorado leads the nation in the per capita number of jobs in the solar industry, according to a recent report from a nonprofit solar education and research organization, but the news has not dispelled the concerns of some in the industry that they are losing ground.

Colorado has an estimated 6,186 jobs in the solar industry and 1,020 businesses, according to “National Solar Jobs Census 2011: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce,” a report released by The Solar Foundation.

Nationwide, more than 100,000 Americans are employed in the solar industry. Only California had more workers and firms in the solar industry.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Exploring & expressing grief

Support groups and events, as well as creative therapies and professional counseling, are all ways in which Pathways supports individuals dealing with grief and loss.

The census was conducted by The Solar Foundation and BW Research Partnership’s Green LMI Consulting division. Statisticians at Cornell University provided technical assistance.

The Colorado county with the most firms in the solar industry is Boulder, according to Neal Lurie, executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association.

“It reinforces the leadership role this region plays in the economy,” Lurie said.

While the report is optimistic, some parts of the local industry are going through a transition that has some decidedly more pessimistic.

Andrew McKenna is the senior vice president of Bella Energy Inc., a Louisville-based designer and installer of commercial solar systems.

McKenna said he read the report but doesn’t believe it matches what he has seen happening in his company’s sub-sector of the industry.

“Just from our own experience at Bella Energy and other companies I know of in the photovoltaic industry, we are not experiencing growth in Colorado this year. Every PV installation company I know of is downsizing,” McKenna said.

Bella Energy has decreased its staff from 37 to 14, he said.

“There a huge talent pool of folks who were getting pretty good at this, and there’s not enough work for them,” McKenna said.

“It’s definitely a trying, very difficult market,” Lighthouse Solar Inc. founder and CEO Scott Franklin said.

Lighthouse Solar, which is based in Boulder and has franchises around the country, has been holding steady at about 40 local employees.

Out-of-state markets, especially in the East Coast, have buoyed the company, he said.

McKenna and Franklin both said the turning point was in February, when Xcel Energy Inc. announced it would lower the amount of incentives available through its Solar Rewards incentive program.

Xcel Energy at the time said it changed the program because customers without solar electric systems were paying too much to support the incentives and that the program had met its goals of stimulating the industry.

“The big shakeup in February really put a damper on things,” Franklin said.

Lurie said the installation sector is going through a transition. Potential bright spots are banks changing the way consumers finance projects, allowing them to pay off loans over a number of years, and a study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showing homeowners are breaking even on projects when they sell homes with solar installed.

The news in other parts of the industry, especially manufacturing, is better.

General Electric announced earlier this month it will build the nation’s largest photovoltaic panel factory in Aurora.

The 200,000-square-foot plant will produce thin-film photovoltaic panels. The technology was developed by PrimeStar Solar, an Arvada company GE bought earlier this year.

The plant will cost $300 million to retrofit and will employ 355 workers, GE said. The company cited Colorado’s workforce and the efforts of state and local officials as reasons for locating the plant here.

Abound Solar Inc., which is based in Loveland, also plans on expanding the production capacity of its thin-film production plant east of Longmont. Abound will add a second line by January and plans a third line by the end of 2012.