(Toledo) Area a world leader in promising method of panel production

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071118/BUSINESS03/71117032/-1/BUSINESS

Article published November 18, 2007

Area a world leader in promising method of panel production

By GARY T. PAKULSKI
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

AMID pessimism about a metro Toledo economy that continues to be overly reliant on automobile production and smokestack industries, a ray of sunlight has shined.

A new industry is taking hold, driven by the city’s experience in mass-producing glass plus a worldwide rush toward new sources of energy.

In Perrysburg Township, executives of a solar-panel manufacturer that has wowed scientists and Wall Street alike are scrambling to maintain a 550-person staff and to fill more than three dozen new positions. Most of the hires are high-paying jobs requiring advanced degrees in physics or engineering.

Nearby, Europe’s largest solar-panel producer, working with a suburban Toledo firm, has established a new company to explore manufacturing technology that holds promise of producing electricity from sunlight as cheaply as from coal and other fossil fuels.

And next year, a start-up headed by a scientist who was born in China will begin producing a different style of solar panel at a plant on Nebraska Avenue in Toledo. Already, his firm employs 25 and is trying to fill 19 more skilled positions.

“It’s good news,” said Steven Weathers, president of Toledo’s Regional Growth Part-nership.

“But it’s not surprising. Economies evolve. At one time, we made flat glass here. That has evolved into solar.” He estimated that 6,000 people are employed in the industry locally.

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[Deja Q]

1. Sweet!

[eppur_se_muova]

2. some links:

http://www.mwoesolar.com /

http://www.pvic.org /

http://utoledo.edu/research/

Midwestern Opto-electronics is the "start-up headed by a scientist who was born in China". They are producing thin-film CIGS panels.

UT used to have a lot of links to their solar cell research, but they seem to have "reorganized" their site ...