Ohio development chief predicts area can be solar-energy capital
BYLINE: Gary T. Pakulski, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
Dec. 28--Ohio's top business booster predicted yesterday that northwest Ohio could one day be known as the solar-energy capital of the Midwest.
At the end of a year that saw more gloomy economic news locally, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who directs the Ohio Department of Development, offered a relatively rosy forecast for the region. "I'm very optimistic about the future of the northwest Ohio economy," he said.
Citing the presence of firms involved in development and production of more cost-efficient solar panels in metro Toledo, plans for a commercial wind farm south of Bowling Green, and construction of ethanol plants elsewhere in the region, Mr. Fisher said northwest Ohio leads the state in alternative energy ventures.
"There is no area of the state that has greater potential for creating an advanced energy cluster than northwest Ohio," he said.
He spoke as he and Gov. Ted Strickland, both Democrats, end their first year in office.
Among top economic development stories in the state this year, he listed General Motors Corp.'s plan to invest another $332 million in its Toledo Powertrain plant for production of more efficient auto transmissions.
The expenditure will bring company investments in the new transmission locally to nearly $900 million.
The move will preserve 1,600 jobs at Toledo Powertrain and enshrine the plant as the only place where GM will build the six-speed transmission for front-wheel-drive passenger cars and rear-wheel-drive pickups and sport utility vehicles, Mr. Fisher said.
Among other top economic development stories in Ohio, the lieutenant governor mentioned Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s decision to keep its headquarters in Akron and plans for expansion of a prescription drug plant in southwest Ohio by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The Toledo area's history as a glass manufacturing center and the presence of leading experts in a new style of thin-film solar panels at the University of Toledo have helped create a budding solar energy industry locally, Mr. Fisher noted.
Perrysburg Township is the home of research operations and the lone U.S. production plant of Phoenix-based industry star First Solar Inc. Perrysburg also has a research and development center operated by Q-Cells AG, which is Europe's largest solar panel producer. A UT spin-off, Xunlight Corp., is opening a solar panel plant in Toledo.
"Toledo and northwest Ohio represent the opportunity to transform what has ... been known as America's breadbasket ... into America's fuel tank," Mr. Fisher said.
Along with solar energy, developers JW Great Lakes Wind LLC of Cleveland and American Municipal Power-Ohio plan to install a commercial wind farm near Bowling Green.
Mr. Fisher also mentioned an ethanol plant being built in Fostoria.
The Ohio Development Department's Energy Office is studying ways that northwest Ohio's expertise in mass production of glass -- most solar panels involve chemicals sprayed on layers of glass -- can be used to improve the solar industry locally, Mr. Fisher said.
The industry would get a boost from a proposal by Mr. Strickland to require that 25 percent of electricity used in Ohio be produced by renewable means by 2025, the lieutenant governor added.
He acknowledged that the local auto industry in the Toledo area suffered a setback with a decision by Chrysler LLC to cut a shift and nearly 800 workers at the Jeep assembly plant next month in response to slower vehicle sales.
"From time to time each of the major companies are going to have to take some steps to cut their costs," Mr. Fisher said.
"Sometimes that means job loss. ... We recognize that, for every four or five steps forward, there will be an occasional one or two steps back."
Contact Gary Pakulski at:
or 419-724-6082.
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