“Green Jobs” Boom Predicted for Central Oregon

Downturn hasn’t put damper on green jobs in Central Oregon
A boom is expected in the near future, and not just in fields that you’d expect
By Kate Ramsayer – The Bulletin – July 27, 2009

There’s only so many windy patches of Earth — and even fewer patches close to transmission lines.

So for the next five to 10 years, the wind power industry is going to be running full steam ahead, said Mike Costanti, principal with Western Community Energy.

“This industry is growing very quickly — and we feel our company will grow quickly as well,” Costanti said.

He anticipates quadrupling the size of his Bend-based company’s development staff over the next couple of years, with jobs for turbine operators, lawyers, permit writers, electrical engineers, structural engineers, construction workers and more.

“We have a lot of room for growth,” Costanti said.

A study released last month by the Oregon Employment Department found that Oregon had more than 51,000 “green jobs” in 2008. Even with the economic downturn, environmentally friendly jobs were projected to increase about 14 percent by 2010. And in Central Oregon, green employers predict that the area could need people working in a variety of jobs that require a range of skills — from energy auditors to organic farmers to solar electricians.

The State of Eugene’s Solar Industry: An Editorial

The following editorial from Eugene’s Register-Guard suggests that Eugene should aspire to become a “center for the emerging solar power industry” as well as ”solar panel design and manufacture” based in part on Centron Solar’s decision to locate there. 

The editorial notes that, “[m]ost of the 30 companies involved in the consortium would never have heard of Eugene if it weren’t for Centron Solar”.  Actually, the real reason the consortium companies have heard of Eugene is because of Ocean Yuan, the President of Centron Solar.  Yuan graduated from the University of Oregon’s Lundquist School of Business in 1993 and feels that Eugene is “an ideal place for our foothold to establish a logistics center in the United States,” as Eugene is strategically located along the Interstate-5 corridor and can serve the entire West Coast.

It’s too bad that Yuan didn’t go to school in Central Oregon.  If he had maybe Centron Solar would have located it’s current 10 high-level managers plus the 200 to 300 additional employees it plans to hire within a year here.  Central Oregon can also be described as a “strategically located logistics center” – expecially for product design and sales – that can serve the entire West Coast. Plus we have much more solar powering sunshine than the Willamette Valley.

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A foot in the solar door
Eugene’s solar industry breakthrough still ahead
 
Register-Guard Editorial – July 13, 2009

It’s welcome news that a consortium of 30 Chinese companies in the solar power industry intends to establish its U.S. sales hub in Eugene. If Centron Solar’s sales model works as planned, 200 to 300 salespeople based in Eugene will be selling solar panels nationwide within a year. But Centron will not, in itself, bring a breakthrough of the kind Eugene has been hoping for, one that would make the city a center of the emerging solar power industry.

Chinese-Owned Solar Firm Lists Jobs for Eugene

Solar firm given warm reception
With Lane County unemployment at 14.2 percent, the new business is greeted with mostly open arms
By Sherri Buri McDonald – The Register-Guard – July 10, 2009

It’s not the leap that Portland and Salem took into the solar industry by landing major solar panel manufacturers. But a Chinese consortium’s plans to set up a hub here for solar panel sales in the United States could be Eugene’s first step into this emerging industry, said Desari Strader, executive director of the Oregon Solar Energy Industries Association.

“I know there’s another (solar) company kicking tires down there, as well,” she said.

Ocean Yuan is president of Centron Solar, a consortium of 30 Chinese solar businesses eager to gain a foothold in the potentially vast U.S. market.

Yuan told The Register-Guard on Wednesday that Centron Solar had leased a warehouse in west Eugene, assembled a management team of about 10 executives, and planned to hire up to 250 or 350 people in a year. About 200 to 300 of the positions would be “traditional white-collar jobs,” he said, and about 50 would be “green jobs,” assembling solar modules, or panels, for about $20 an hour, including benefits.

He said the consortium did not plan to set up major manufacturing or assembly operations in Eugene. Instead, the group plans to site assembly shops in multiple U.S. cities, closer to customers.

Centron Solar is moving quickly. It set up shop in Eugene two weeks ago, and on Thursday it launched its Web site, which listed seven open positions, including business development directors, technical support engineers and customer service representatives.

Good Questions Asked about Eugene’s Centron Solar

The following Eugene Weekly blog post raises some interesting and to the point questions about Centron Solar.  Is Ocean Yuan, President of Centron Solar simply doing a superb public relations job or is there something not quite right about Eugene’s newest solar industry business?

It is interesting to see the job listing posted for sales reps for Centron Solar on June 16, 2009 on Boston Craigslist by Ocean Yuan.

# # #

Will Centron Solar Jobs Materialize?
by Alan Pittman – Eugene Weekly blog – July 10, 2009

Centron Solar has made front page news with the announcement that it may bring up to 300 much needed jobs to Eugene. But it remains unclear just how much substance Centron actually has and if all those jobs will actually materialize.

“Really, we don’t know what’s real here and what’s not real,” Bob Warren, a state business development officer for Lane County told the Oregonian.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a large upfront investment,” Jack Roberts, director of the Lane Metro Partnership told The Register-Guard.

Here’s some other details that also raise questions about the substance of the Centron Solar operation:

Chinese Startup Selects Eugene

Chinese startup based in Eugene wants to sell inexpensive solar panels in U.S.
by Amy Hsuan –  The Oregonian - July 09, 2009

A Chinese startup vying for a piece of the U.S. solar market has landed in Eugene, hoping to become a national player in the state’s growing photovoltaic industry.

Centron Solar, whose Web site went live Thursday morning, is moving fast to sell and distribute bargain-priced solar panels made in China to the U.S. market, expected to be the world’s next big solar player.

But the company didn’t even have a name until last month. It leased its Eugene headquarters and 25,000-square-foot warehouse within two weeks. Its first shipment of solar panels, worth $1 million, arrived from China just five days ago.

The company, the brainchild of Eugene resident Ocean Yuan, is moving so fast that it caught state economic development officials — and potential competitor SolarWorld — by surprise.

Chinese Solar Consortium to Put Sales Hub in Eugene

Chinese group plans local solar panel hub
Centron Solar’s planned sales site and assembly lines eventually could bring several hundred jobs to Eugene
By Sherri Buri McDonald – The Register-Guard – July 9, 2009

A consortium of 30 Chinese companies in the solar panel industry is setting up a U.S. sales hub in Eugene, the group’s president, Ocean Yuan, told The Register-Guard on Wednesday.

The group, named Centron Solar, has leased a 25,000-square-foot warehouse in west Eugene, has 10 high-level managers on board and has ambitious plans to grow to 200 to 300 employees in a year, Yuan said.

The group probably also will set up one or two solar panel assembly lines in Eugene, creating about 50 “green” jobs. Those positions would pay about $20 an hour, including benefits, he said.

The group’s members — mature manufacturers with proven technologies — have banded together to serve the vast potential market for affordable solar panels in the United States, Yuan said.

“Instead of coming in here by themselves and confusing the market with company names that the average American can’t even pronounce, we decided to combine forces and create an easy-to-pronounce, easy-to-remember name, which is Centron Solar,” Yuan said.

Woody Biomass Plant in La Pine Scheduled for Completion in 2011

New Biomass Power Plant to Bring Jobs to La Pine
By Doug Johnson – KOHD-TV News – June 29, 2009
 
In 18 months 10 acres on the corner of Reed Road and Mitts Way in La Pine, will be transformed into a biomass power plant, able to produce almost twenty megawatts of electricity. The plans were approved Monday morning, by the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners.
 
“Going to add to the economy, going to create jobs, they’re going to produce steam, that will maybe be able to use in other applications, other businesses,” says Susan Ross, Director of Property and Facilities for Deschutes County.
 
Biogreen Sustainable Energy out of St. Helens Oregon will build and operate the plant. It expects the plant to bring twenty direct jobs, with as many as ninety indirect jobs such as trucking and forestry to follow. In addition, the company says about one hundred construction jobs should be created in the next four months.

Centron Solar Sales Reps Job Listed Across the U.S.

The Craigslist post below is typical of the sales reps jobs available postings across the U.S. by Centron Solar.  A quick search found Craigslist posting in Philadelphia as well as a listing on Monster.com and Indeed.com.

# # #

Sales Reps for Solar Modules: Big Money (Anywhere There Is A Sunshine)

Reply to: oyuan@centronsolar.com
Date: 2009-06-16, 9:51AM EDT

Independent Sales Reps for Solar Modules – All Regions in North America
About the Job

Description:

Centron Solar is the first and only large scale consortium of solar
manufacturers providing high quality, low cost mono- and
poly-crystalline solar modules. Headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, USA,
Centron Solar revolutionize how solar modules are sold in the
marketplace, hence bringing unprecedented financial benefits to
installers, system integrators and project developers alike in North
America.

Oregon is a National Green Jobs Leader

Green and on top
By Andrew Moore - The Bulletin – June 14, 2009

Solar. Wind. Water. Geothermal, biomass and even garbage. With all these opportunities, it’s no wonder Oregon leads the nation in clean energy. And based on the number of alternative energy firms sprouting up in Central Oregon, it seems only natural that growth in green jobs has far outpaced the national average.

Rod Page, who lives just north of Bend, is concerned about the nation’s energy consumption. Accordingly, he drives a biodiesel-fueled car and later this week will have solar panels installed on his roof to help power his home.

He’s wanted to install them for more than two years, but found it cost-prohibitive. Now, thanks to state and federal tax credits, the cost has come down enough to make economic sense for Page.

But this isn’t really a story about solar power. It’s about the demand created by folks like Page who are helping to fuel rising employment in the clean-energy sector.

In other words, green jobs.

According to a report released Wednesday by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, jobs in the country’s clean-energy sector grew at a rate of 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, compared with total job growth of only 3.7 percent in the same period.

In Oregon, the number is greater. According to the report, jobs in Oregon’s clean-energy sector grew at a rate of 50.7 percent between 1998 and 2007, compared with total job growth of 7.5 percent in the same period. That means Oregon, with upwards of 1,600 clean-energy companies, has more green jobs than any other state.

Is Converting Garbage to Gas & Glass Green?

Garbage never smelled so sweet
InEnTec of Bend has partnered with Waste Management Inc. to build its trash-to-gas machines at landfills across the country. The result could be a renewable energy dream — and InEnTec is promising big returns for Central Oregon, in the form of green energy.
By Andrew Moore – The Bulletin – June 07, 2009

[To learn more about ‘Melting’ garbage: How it works see end of article.]

Two weeks ago, Bend-based InEnTec LLC announced a joint venture with Houston-based Waste Management Inc., a Fortune 500 company with more than $13 billion in revenues.

While a big step for privately held InEnTec, a small waste-to-energy company that relocated to Bend last year from Richland, Wash., it also promises big returns for Central Oregon.

The new joint venture, called S4 Energy Solutions LLC, will be based in Houston but is opening an office in The Old Mill District, adjacent to InEnTec’s office. S4 will eventually employ more than 20 chemical and other engineers, generally earning more than $100,000 a year, according to Jeff Surma, a founder of InEnTec and S4’s first CEO.

They are the sort of high-paying green jobs that politicians love to promise, working with technology that turns everyday garbage into fuel and other products without any harmful emissions. But InEnTec hasn’t been visited by presidential candidates promoting renewable energy, or sitting senators touting the green spending in the stimulus bill.