American Forum Op-Ed

ALABAMA FORUM

By Pat Byington

It was one of those see-it-to-believe-it moments. While visiting my sister-in-law on a typically gray day in Seattle, I noticed she had just replaced her roof, and on top of the house were several solar panels.

Solar panels in cloudy and rainy Seattle?

With a grin on her face, she took me down to her basement and showed me her electrical meter. And there it was...running backward.

She then explained, "At this moment, Seattle City Light, the local power company, is paying me. And, in fact, they want this." She then pulled out her monthly Seattle City Light newsletter. It had a story encouraging its customers to help them "build a power plant" by using less energy and turning to alternative sources so it would not have to build a new coal-powered plant.

When I got back into my car, turning on my wiper blades to sweep away the Seattle mist, I could only think: If solar power can work in this climate, it can work anywhere.

Search the state of Alabama's government website for the words "solar power" or "solar energy," and you will find just a couple of press releases over the past seven years mentioning a small solar power grant or two. As an economic development priority, it is rarely, if ever, discussed in this state.

Visit Tennessee's government website and you will find numerous news items and almost monthly gubernatorial press releases detailing how, in just a few years, the state has emerged as a premier location for the global solar power industry. In Tennessee, they have become true believers in solar power, capturing billions of new manufacturing development dollars and creating, even in this tough economy, thousands of new jobs.

For example, in 2009, the Volunteer State attracted:

• Hemlock Semiconductor, a joint venture between Dow Corning and two Japanese companies that will be locating a solar manufacturing operation in Clarksville, investing between $1.2 billion and $2.5 billion.

• Wacker Chemie, a German company that will be building in Bradley County a $1 billion polycrystalline silicon manufacturing operation -- the root material for solar panels.

• Missouri-based Confluence Solar, who will be investing $200 million to build a plant in Clinton. Bottom line: Another 200 to 400 jobs will be created.

Together, these three plants will generate conservatively more than 2,000 new manufacturing jobs. To put it into perspective for Alabamians, these economic development investments are like attracting two new auto-assembly plants in one year.

Alabama may have won the national championship in football this year; however, Tennessee topped the nation in new solar power manufacturing and jobs.

Now, this did not just magically happen in Tennessee. Through Gov. Phil Bredesen's leadership and recently secured federal stimulus funds, the state has created a comprehensive solar energy and economic development program to create jobs, improve education, and promote research and renewable-power production. This includes establishing the Volunteer Solar Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the West Tennessee Solar Farm, a five-megawatt, 20-acre power generation facility next to a proposed industrial site.

And the jobs will keep coming once the state completes the "Tennessee solar supply chain," which will include not only multinational manufacturers, but also local jobs for distributors, sales, system design, installation and maintenance of this new source of energy. These will be permanent, home-grown jobs.

What made the emerging solar power industry in Tennessee possible was commitment from the top: the governor. Is solar power on Gov. Bob Riley's radar? Is it on the radar of any of the candidates for governor?

I guess when you see electrical meters running backward and solar panels popping up and working economically in "gray and rainy" places like Seattle, solar power is here to stay. It is obvious Tennessee has jumped on the solar power economic development bandwagon. Will Alabama follow?
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Byington is senior associate with The Wilderness Society and publisher of Bama Environmental News.
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