Local Solar Firms Confident Despite Industry Challenges

A ?year after a U.S. senator said northwest Ohio’s solar-panel industry was helping the state to become known as “the Silicon Valley of clean energy,” industry experts predict the global industry will undergo a major shakeout that will break all but a handful of solar panel producers worldwide.

The bold forecast raises questions about the future of the Toledo area’s three panel makers, with one more coming next year.

Each of the firms with local operations — First Solar Inc., Xunlight Corp., Willard & Kelsey Group LLC, and, building a plant in Napoleon, Isofoton North America — contends it makes a particular type of panel that is in demand and is competitively priced, so it will survive any industry consolidation.