A Time When US Led in Solar

My wife and I were going through some old pictures and I came across this one from a National Solar Show in 1997 where we were exhibiting.?1997 was a watershed year for the American solar industry.?The American solar industry entered the year as the undisputed leader at the apex of its position in solar manufacturing throughout the world, a position it held since the invention of the solar cell by Bell Laboratories in 1954.?

The company we represented was the largest American owned solar manufacturer in 1997 and we were just launching a new line of solar modules designed to make home solar systems more affordable.?But if you ask many in the solar industry today, I doubt few would remember and some may have never heard of the name, Solarex.?But Solarex was almost a quarter century-old company, manufacturing nearly 25 million watts of solar modules annually, when this picture was taken.?

By the end of 1997, the leading manufacturer of solar modules had passed from America to Germany and then to Japan.?Approximately 1? decades later China would become the dominant solar manufacturing country in the world, a position it continues to hold in the present day.?

Why am I reminiscing about this? ?What role is my witness in this industry, today??

Ever since then, I have advocated for state energy policy that would support the solar industry.?In Virginia it was to support the new 10 MW solar plant that Solarex established there in 1995.?The product line we were introducing at the solar conference was being manufactured in the new plant in James City County, Virginia. I was there with Governor George Allen and a group of engineers from my alma mater to break ground on the new plant. ?I was also part of a loose-knit team of people advocating for a competitive energy industry in Virginia that would support the nascent solar opportunity we hoped to grow there.?

However, in 2007, Virginia legislators and regulators decided to re-regulate the electric utility industry and the free energy competitive market came to an end.?It was soon after that, the Solarex plant in Virginia, now owned by BP Solar, was shut down.

When we relocated to Georgia in 2007, I vowed to find a way to make a difference in Georgia for solar through the free-energy market place, and through the regulated utility industry there if necessary.?Late last year I testified before the Georgia PSC for solar net-metering policies to open up the rooftop solar market. To be fair, Georgia Power has a decade relationship investing in solar and has propelled the state into 7th in solar installations.?However, much of the homeowners and private businesses in Georgia have been largely left on the sidelines without the ability to net meter with the utility leaving the state seventh from the bottom in solar rooftop deployment.?

A lot of people complain about the import of solar technologies from China to support solar programs in the United States.?In fact, I had even heard, that the fact a large percentage of solar modules are manufactured in China was a reason legislators used not to support open energy markets for solar.?

Georgia is a state in transition on clean energy.?It has made great strides in attracting electric vehicle and battery companies.?Having rescinded a fairly attractive incentive program for Georgia citizens to purchase electric vehicles in 2016, the state is now considering changing its policy to support these new companies.?Georgia has also successfully recruited one of the largest solar manufacturers not located in China.?Hanwah Solar, from South Korea, is making Georgia the leading state in manufacturing solar, bringing the United States back into one of the pre-eminent positions of solar manufacturing.

So how did our testimony before the Georgia PSC go on the question of solar net metering??I would like to say that the elected officials running energy policy for the states utilities, including Georgia Power, have learned from the failures of Virginia, the US and the position in Solar, that China has been allowed to establish.?I say allowed, because, the United States literally handed over solar manufacturing leadership to other countries, by not aggressively seeking competitive energy markets for solar to flourish when it was in the lead or at least compel state regulated utilities to level the playing field for solar.?Offering net metering is one of those leveling the playing fields measure.?

I hope the Public Service Commission gets the message about supporting solar the way the Georgia legislature and Governor Brian Kemp are moving to support the electric vehicle market.??