Apparently the solar systems installation industry of Central Oregon will get another competitor: Advanced Energy Systems.  The physical location is currently unknown but the Bend phone number is listed on the company’s website as 541-520-5590.

The above image is from an advertisement in the October 21, 2009 Cascade Business News and the following announcement was in the September Economic Development for Central Oregon Newsletter:

New Member: Advanced Energy Systems – Bronze
With a new office in Bend, AES Advanced Energy Systems has expanded from the west side of the Cascades. With 25 years of hands-on involvement in the renewable energy industry, Advanced Energy Systems is dedicated to providing the best experience possible for the business owner with the acquisition and operation of a renewable energy system. Advanced Energy Systems specializes in the design of commercial solar electric systems and commercial solar water heating systems.

So as to not dwell on the negative three articles on this subject are included in this one post.  The first two articles are recent while the last one is dated one year ago.  Each article has duplicate details but some different information too.

# # #

Bend solar contractor charged in million-dollar theft case
Victims include homeowners, high-profile local businesses
By Nick Budnick – The Bulletin – September 17, 2009

A Bend renewable-energy systems contractor who for years has been accused of shoddy work, unkept promises and worse was taken into custody Wednesday following his arraignment on 29 counts of theft, unlicensed construction work and racketeering.

Eric “Gabe” Wisehart, 38, was booked into the Deschutes County jail on $500,000 bail and was being held there Wednesday evening. He has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan said, “This is a very large and (detailed) fraud, theft-type case that has probably in excess of $1 million of fraud. There are numerous, numerous victims not only inside Deschutes County but outside Deschutes County.”

Wisehart did business under the name New Path Renewables, Pac-Wind OR LLC and Solect Systems Inc. The indictment, which was issued Monday, describes a pattern of theft and theft by deception since 2004 committed against more than two-dozen customers. It expands upon documents filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court last year when detectives raided the house Wisehart shared with his wife, Sonia. His wife has not been indicted.

The documents accuse Wisehart of having repeatedly promised to install solar or wind-power equipment while collecting full or partial payment up front. Then, he frequently never completeed the job.

At times, he is accused of completing the job, only to return later to remove without permission equipment that he’d already installed.

Wisehart’s alleged victims include some well-known Central Oregon firms such as Pronghorn, Aspen Lakes Golf Course and Jeld-Wen, the developer of Brasada Ranch.

The list also includes people like Sandy Veeck, 68, who hired Wisehart in April 2006 to install solar panels on her east Bend home.

It took eight to 10 months and “a lot of harassment on my part” to get the panels installed, Veeck said, and then the work kept flunking inspection by the county. Finally, she hired another company that fixed the problems in a single day, she said.

She said she is out $12,000 and likened Wisehart’s business pattern to a “pyramid” scheme in which later customers’ payments were used to fund work on previous customers.

“This guy is smooth,” said Veeck, who said she is now undergoing expensive chemotherapy. “I am unemployed and a widow. I have not got infinite funds; I need every dollar like everybody else today.”

Cathy Jensen, of northwest Bend, who said she and her husband are out about $8,000, said that Wisehart’s victims were those hoping to be pioneers in advancing a more sustainable future.

“He was a very cool operator,” she said.

Kelli Hewitt, co-owner of another Bend solar-energy contractor, E2 Powered, said her firm has been called in to repair or complete as many as 12 renewable-energy projects that Wisehart had started.

She said Wisehart was well-known in the industry and had been at the forefront of the solar boom starting about five years ago.

“I would say in Bend he was very well-known, and I would say it’s not just Bend; he’s done systems throughout Oregon and probably in California and Washington as well.

“We’re too small of an industry and too new to fight those kinds of stigmas,” she said of the allegations against Wisehart, which she called “unfortunate.”

Between 2001 and 2007, he was suspended four times by the state Construction Contractors Board for a number of violations including “dishonest or fraudulent conduct,” according to the agency. In January 2008, the board refused to reissue his license based on at least 16 complaints, including for dishonest and fraudulent behavior.

He owes the board about $40,000 for claims filed by past clients, according to the board’s Web site.

Wisehart was first arrested one year ago, in September 2008, when detectives with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on his home. Court documents show that detectives also seized computers and other equipment.

Deschutes County Chief Deputy District Attorney Darryl Nakahira said the investigation has been long and involved because of the need to analyze computers, as well as the decision to prosecute him for racketeering, a criminal statute originally written for organized crime and which alleges an enterprise based on a pattern of criminal activity.

To assist in the case, Dugan and Nakahira requested assistance from the Oregon Department of Justice and state Attorney General John Kroger.

In a news release Wednesday, Kroger said, “Oregon needs green jobs, not green crime.”

Wisehart is scheduled to return to court to enter a plea Sept. 30.

# # #

Bend solar contractor indicted on $1.5 million in thefts
Largest fraud case in Deschutes County history, DA says
KTVZ.COM news sources – September 16, 2009

A year after his initial arrest, a Bend solar contractor appeared in court and was ordered jailed Wednesday on an indictment accusing him of stealing more than $1.5 million in solar panels and renewable energy equipment from over two-dozen former clients.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger and Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan said the 29-count indictment alleges that contractor Eric Robert “Gabe” Wisehart, 37, returned to job sites and stole more than $1.5 million in property.

Wisehart did business as New Path Renewables, PacWind-Or LLC and Solect Systems Inc. Victimized clients included homeowners, the Ray’s Food Place on Bend’s Westside, and the Pronghorn and Brasada Ranch golf resorts, authorities said.

Wisehart appeared Wednesday morning before Circuit Judge Michael Sullivan, who ordered him jailed on $500,000 bail pending another court appearance and possible plea entry in two weeks.

“This is the largest fraud case in Deschutes County history. and it represents how local law enforcement and the Attorney General can work together to crack down on consumer fraud,” said Dugan. “I look forward to working with the Attorney General Kroger to hold Gabe Wisehart accountable.”

“The indictment alleges that Wisehart stole solar panels and renewable energy equipment,” said Kroger. “Oregon needs green jobs, not green crime.”
The 29-count indictment accuses Eric Robert “Gabe” Wisehart of stealing property valued at $10,000 to $900,000.

The charges include accusations that Wisehart returned to job sites and unlawfully removed his former clients’ property, including solar panels and other renewable energy equipment.

The case is being prosecuted by Deschutes County Chief Deputy District Attorney Darryl Nakahira, Deputy District Attorney Evander McIver and Senior Assistant Attorney General Andrew Campbell.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office and the Oregon Department of Justice Criminal Justice Division are conducting an ongoing investigation into additional alleged financial improprieties by Wisehart.

A year ago, sheriff’s detectives said Wisehart bilked customers out of thousands of dollars when he didn’t finish solar and renewable energy projects.

# # #

The initial allegations as reported September 17, 2008 are below:

Bend solar contractor ripped off many, police say
Police raid home, seek public’s help in finding victims
By Nina Mehlhaf and Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM – September 17, 2008

Arrested but not yet booked into jail, a Bend contractor is awaiting the final tally of charges he’ll face for theft.

Deschutes County sheriff’s detectives say Eric Grybyal Wisehart, 37, or “Gabe” as he’s better known, bilked customers out of thousands of dollars when he didn’t finish solar and renewable projects.

Detectives are now going through records on the Oregon Construction and Contractors Board Website.

Wisehart owes nearly $37,000 just in penalties and civil dispute payments for work complaints dating back to 2001. The unlicensed contractor and owner of New Path Renewables, a solar panel and renewable energy business in Bend, has been hit with violations of dishonest and fraudulent business practices.

But it turned criminal when those victims started calling the sheriff’s office with the same accusations.

Authorities say Wisehart would take tens of thousands of dollars of their money for something like a solar panel project, do it halfway, then take off.

“There were large sums of money put up front with an inability to pay it back and based on the number of times this occurred, we believe it went beyond bad business practices,” Sgt. Michael Espinoza said Wednesday.

Nobody answered the door Wednesday at Wisehart’s Woodside North Drive home in southeast Bend Wednesday.

Neighbors NewsChannel 21 spoke with were surprised to hear the news, calling him a nice family man. But some others in the solar power industry around town say Wisehart’s a legend, and it was just a matter of time before he got caught.

“We’ve certainly known about this for awhile, but it’s frustrating because we’re trying to run an ethical business here and take care of our customers,” said Chance Currington of Sunlight Solar Energy Inc. in Bend.

“This is something specific to our industry and gives (businesses like) us a bad name, and we don’t like that at all,” he said.

To avoid becoming a victim, Currington says get the contractor’s CCB license number and check it to see if they’re bonded and insured. And get phone numbers of past clients to see if they were satisfied.

Authorities say this kind of alleged fraud is getting worse because of the bad housing market and economy.

“It’s hard to say negative things about someone so charismatic that people do like and like to be around,” Currington said. “But at the same time, you can’t do that to people, and it’s come around full circle now.”

To check and see if your contractor is legit, you can log onto the state Construction Contractor Board’s Website at www.oregon.gov/ccb and look up their name and status.

If you believe you were a victim of this fraud, sheriff’s detectives want to talk to you. You can call them at (541) 617-3393.

Gabe Wisehart will remain out of jail until the investigation is done and the final charges are tallied up. Most likely, he will face a grand jury indictment.

Sheriff’s detectives executed a search warrant around 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Wisehart’s home, Espinoza said in a news release, adding that he will face “multiple counts of aggravated theft.”

An investigation began several months ago, after the sheriff’s office received several complaints that Wisehart had defrauded customers around Oregon and Washington since 2001, Espinoza said.

Wisehart operated several renewable-energy companies that authorities allege he used to defraud potential customers: New Path Renewables Inc. (NPRI), New Earth Works Inc., Pacwind LLC and Select Systems, Inc., Espinoza said.

The charges claim Wisehart sold customers solar and renewable-energy systems that were never completed, leading to complaints to the sheriff’s office and the Oregon Construction Contractors Board.

Because the investigation is still under way, Espinoza said he could not detail the number of victims or money involved as of yet, but said “multiple victims have been defrauded of large sums of money for these systems.”

Espinoza told KTVZ.COM that Wisehart was not immediately jailed because authorities want to “work with him” on the allegations, adding that he “cannot operate like he was” in the meantime.

“Even though the investigation is not over, we wanted to get information out before anyone else would be victimized financially,” the sergeant said.

While the investigation is pending, Espinoza added that no other suspects are expected to be charged in the case.

“We don’t anticipate this expanding any further than the businesses we’re investigating” and have identified publicly, he said

Area solar activity heats up
Energy companies eye sites near Christmas Valley
By Keith Chu – The Bulletin – August 28, 2009

While government bureaucracy continues to hold up a proposed solar facility at a former military radar base in Christmas Valley, the proposal has attracted two developers to try and cash in on the solar power potential on other sites just south of the Deschutes County line, according to state and local officials.

About seven companies are interested in the radar site, state officials have said. But those companies, which the state won’t name, have been waiting for more than a year for the military land to become available for development.

So this May, a California company filed an application with the Department of State Lands to build a solar energy farm on a separate parcel — 640 acres of state land on the northern border of Lake County. Additionally, a Portland investment firm has received land use approval to develop 80 acres for solar energy on private land nearby.

The proposal to develop renewable energy at the former radar site put Christmas Valley, located about 95 miles southeast of Bend, on developers’ maps, said Lake County Commissioner Brad Winters.

“I think a lot of it began because of the backscatter (radar) site and all the media from it, but we’re starting to see quite a bit of interest in the renewable energy side,” Winters said.

Infrastructure

GreenWing Energy America Corp., based in Morgan, Calif., proposed building a “utility-scale solar energy farm” of between 50 megawatts and 104 megawatts, on the state land in northern Lake County, according to its application.

The plant would use “photovoltaic solar panels mounted on tracking mechanisms which follow the path of the sun throughout the day,” the application says. “The site location was chosen based on solar exposure, proximity to an existing large transmission line and compatible land use.”

The transmission lines are what first drew the attention of U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, and Lake County and state officials to the former military base. Those lines can transmit up to 200 megawatts of energy at a time, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

The 2,622-acre site once held an Air Force radar complex designed to watch for threats across the Pacific Ocean. But the radar was shuttered in 1990, only a few months after it was finished. Since the Air Force announced it would close the radar station in 2005, the military, BLM and the state have envisioned developing the site for solar or wind power.

Now that the radar site has been decommissioned, the federal General Services Administration is in the process of transferring ownership to the state. The state is eying a portion of the site for National Guard training, and another as a possible camp for people displaced in a natural disaster.

Problems negotiating the details of the land transfer have held up the renewable energy development there, said Winter, who is a co-chairman of the joint county-state team working on the project.

That hasn’t stopped development from going ahead nearby.

In the works

GreenWing is the first company to apply for solar development rights on state lands, said Nancy Pustis, eastern region manager for the Department of State Lands.

GreenWing officials couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.

The company needs to submit a more detailed proposal before the state can process the application, Pustis said.

GreenWing also has purchased 6,000 acres of easements for wind energy development in the county, Winters said.

A second firm, Portland’s Obsidian Finance Group LLC., received a conditional-use permit for solar development on an 80-acre parcel in the Christmas Valley area, Winters said. A copy of the permit was not immediately available from the Lake County Planning Department.

The Christmas Valley radar site once sported 216 antennae that varied in height from 35 to 135 feet, according to earlier reports in The Bulletin. Several empty buildings and a lot of empty space are all that remain.

In 2007, Gov. Ted Kulongoski designated the property as an Oregon Solutions project, which brings together state and local officials on economic development issues.

More Sun for Less: Solar Panels Drop in Price
By Kate Galbraith – New York Times -August 26, 2009

When Greg Hare looked into putting solar panels on his ranch-style home in Magnolia, Tex., last year, he decided he could not afford it. “I had no idea solar was so expensive,” he recalled.

But the cost of solar panels has plunged lately, changing the economics for many homeowners. Mr. Hare ended up paying $77,000 for a large solar setup that he figures might have cost him $100,000 a year ago.

“I just thought, ‘Wow, this is an opportunity to do the most for the least,’ ” Mr. Hare said.

For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year, driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray.

The price drops — coupled with recently expanded federal incentives — could shrink the time it takes solar panels to pay for themselves to 16 years, from 22 years, in places with high electricity costs, according to Glenn Harris, chief executive of SunCentric, a solar consulting group. That calculation does not include state rebates, which can sometimes improve the economics considerably.

American consumers have the rest of the world to thank for the big solar price break.

Until recently, panel makers had been constrained by limited production of polysilicon, which goes into most types of panels. But more factories making the material have opened, as have more plants churning out the panels themselves — especially in China.

“A ton of production, mostly Chinese, has come online,” said Chris Whitman, the president of U.S. Solar Finance, which helps arrange bank financing for solar projects.

At the same time, once-roaring global demand for solar panels has slowed, particularly in Europe, the largest solar market, where photovoltaic installations are forecast to fall by 26 percent this year compared with 2008, according to Emerging Energy Research, a consulting firm. Much of that drop can be attributed to a sharp slowdown in Spain. Faced with high unemployment and an economic crisis, Spain slashed its generous subsidy for the panels last year because it was costing too much.

Many experts expect panel prices to fall further, though not by another 40 percent.

Manufacturers are already reeling from the price slump. For example, Evergreen Solar, which is based in Massachusetts, recently reported a second-quarter loss that was more than double its loss from a year earlier.

But some manufacturers say that cheaper panels could be a good thing in the long term, spurring enthusiasm among customers and expanding the market.

“It’s important that these costs and prices do come down,” said Mike Ahearn, the chief executive of First Solar, a panel maker based in Tempe, Ariz.

First Solar recently announced a deal to build two large solar arrays in Southern California to supply that region’s dominant utility. But across the United States, the installation of large solar systems — the type found on commercial or government buildings — has been hurt by financing problems, and is on track to be about the same this year as in 2008, according to Emerging Energy Research.

The smaller residential sector continues to grow: In California, by far the largest market in the country, residential installations in July were up by more than 50 percent compared with a year earlier. With prices dropping, that momentum looks poised to continue.

John Berger, chief executive of Standard Renewable Energy, the company in Houston that put panels on Mr. Hare’s home, said that his second-quarter sales rose by more than 225 percent from the first quarter.

“Was that as a product of declining panel prices? Almost certainly yes,” Mr. Berger said.

Expanded federal incentives have also helped spur the market. Until this year, homeowners could get a 30 percent tax credit for solar electric installations, but it was capped at $2,000. That cap was lifted on Jan. 1.

Mr. Hare in Texas cited the larger tax credit, which sliced about $23,000 from his $77,000 bill, as a major factor in his decision to go solar, in addition to the falling panel prices. Sensing a good deal, he even got a larger system than he had originally planned — going from 42 panels to 64. The electric bill on his 7,000-square-foot house and garage has typically run $600 to $700 a month, but he expects a reduction of 40 to 80 percent.

Mr. Berger predicts that with panel prices falling and the generous federal credit in place, utilities will start lowering rebates they offer to homeowners who put panels on their roofs.

One that has already done so is the Salt River Project, the main utility in Phoenix, which cut its homeowners’ rebate by 10 percent in June. Lori Singleton, the utility’s sustainability manager, said the utility had recently spent more than it budgeted for solar power, a result of a surge in demand as more solar installers moved into Arizona and government incentives kicked in.

California has been steadily bringing down its rebates. An impending 29 percent cut in rebates offered within the service area of Pacific Gas and Electric, the dominant utility in Northern California, means that “with the module price drop over the last few months, it is pretty much a wash,” Bill Stewart, president of SolarCraft, an installer in Novato, Calif., said in an e-mail message.

Even if falling rebates cancel out some of the solar panel price slump, more innovative financing strategies are also helping to make solar affordable for homeowners. This year about a dozen states — following moves by California and Colorado last year — have enacted laws enabling solar panels to be paid off gradually, through increased property taxes, after a municipality first shoulders the upfront costs.

Some installers have adopted similar approaches. Danita Hardy, a homeowner in Phoenix, had been put off by the prospect of spending $20,000 for solar panels — until she spotted a news item about a company called SunRun that takes on the upfront expense and recovers its costs gradually, in a lease deal, essentially through the savings in a homeowner’s electric bill.

“I thought well, heck, this might be doable,” said Ms. Hardy, who wound up having to lay out only $800 to get 15 solar panels for her home.

Oregon canal piping projects win stimulus funds
From KTVZ.COM news sources – August 20, 2009

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced Thursday that the Bureau of Reclamation has identified two Challenge Grant projects in Central Oregon that will receive a $3.3 million share of $40 million coming to Oregon under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  

Through the Challenge Grant Program’s Water Marketing and Efficiency Grants, Reclamation provides 50/50 cost share funding to states and irrigation and water districts for projects focused on water marketing, conservation and efficiency.  Projects are selected through a competitive process, based on their ability to meet the goal of improving sustainable water supplies in the western United States.  The projects include:

Main Canal Piping Project and Ponderosa Hydro plant, Swalley Irrigation District: $2,058,935 for this three stage/phase project that would complete piping of ¾ miles of canal, the design and construction of a 0.75 megawatt hydropower plant, and a solar telemetry project that would allow the District to use solar power for a system that monitors, measures and controls water.

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.

 # # #

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.

China is the world leader in the manufacture of solar photovoltaic panels, but the United States remains a relatively small market for Chinese companies — which explains why some of them would prefer to work through a consortium such as Centron. The consortium relieves them of the need to make their own sales, assembly, distribution, installation and service arrangements. Centron offers the Chinese companies a way to enter the U.S. market without making a large investment.

Eugene would be in an enviable position if it became a conduit for world leaders in the solar power industry, although it’s possible that a company would leave the consortium if it found itself supplying a large number of U.S. customers. A solar panel manufacturer might be expected to set up a separate U.S. subsidiary or joint venture once the volume of business justified such a move. Most of the 30 companies involved in the consortium would never have heard of Eugene if it weren’t for Centron Solar, and Eugene might be able to put itself in a position to play a role in their future plans for the U.S. market.

Centron says it also may establish one or two solar panel assembly lines in Eugene, employing up to 50 people. Assembly jobs would be welcome, but assembly is one or two steps down from the top of the food chain — Eugene should aspire to be a center for solar panel design and manufacture. Most assembly is likely to take place near the primary markets for solar panels, which tend to be in found in places where electricity from the power grid is most expensive. That’s not the Northwest, where cheap hydropower keeps electricity prices relatively low.

The long-term growth of the solar panel industry in the United States depends on continued reductions in the price of the electricity the panels produce. Currently, the affordability of solar power installations depends on federal and state tax breaks that cover half or more of the upfront cost. The tax breaks are more generous for commercial installations, which explains why solar panels on businesses’ rooftops have become a common sight, while residential systems remain relatively rare. The subsidies are intended to boost sales volumes, bringing about economies of scale and innovation. The aim should be to encourage the emergence of an industry that needs no subsidies.

Centron plans to push costs down by selling directly to installers, cutting one or more steps out of the distribution chain. Drawing efficient connections between manufacturer and consumer will be a part of the development of a cost-competitive solar industry. A bigger factor, however, will be narrowing the price gap between power from solar panels and power from the grid — and that will depend on technical and manufacturing improvements.

If those improvements could happen in Eugene, Centron might one day have an American-made product to sell. That would mark a true breakthrough in Eugene’s ambition of becoming a center for the emerging solar power industry.

Centron is a foot in the door — but it will take something else to cause the door to swing wide open.

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.

In the past year, Lane County has had a string of layoffs, including 1,000 jobs at the former Hynix computer-chip plant in west Eugene, and more than 2,000 jobs at local RV manufacturers.

“(Centron Solar) is certainly going to have a lot of people applying for those jobs,” said Brian Rooney, a labor economist with the state Employment Department.

Even if the consortium creates 200 to 300 jobs, however, it wouldn’t have much impact on the county’s unemployment rate, Rooney said. That rate stood at a seasonally adjusted 14.2 percent in May.

“But at this point any kind of job with decent pay, and especially benefits, will help those individuals” who are looking for work, he said.

The mere mention of hundreds of jobs had Raquel Tucker, assistant branch manager of Selectemp, a Springfield staffing service, attempting to contact Centron Solar on Thursday.

“We’re interested in helping them (with their hiring),” she said.

Chinese firms big on solar industry

Yuan, a ’93 business graduate from the University of Oregon, previously served as president of Solarfun Power USA and as global vice president of Smith & Associates, a semiconductor distribution company, according to Centron Solar’s Web site. Details on the other members of the consortium were not available on Thursday.

Chinese companies have made a big push into the solar panel market and now produce half of the world’s solar panels, Yuan said.

The Chinese manufacturers “have a very strong commitment,” said Jack Roberts, executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, a local economic development agency. “They have a lot of resources … They’re making a very big play.”

Lane Metro Partnership helped Centron Solar secure the site they’re leasing in west Eugene, Roberts said. No incentives are involved, he said.

“In the hierarchy of solar, you have distribution, assembly and manufacturing,” Roberts said. “Manufacturing is obviously the holy grail,” as far as employment, pay scale, overall investment and the tax base, he said. “Whether these guys will be able to make a larger contribution in the distribution — if they get to 200 jobs it would be great — but we’re kind of working with them to see what happens.”

Other solar companies have expressed interest in Eugene, Roberts said.

“We’d like to get some companies involved in solar interested in working here, whether in distribution or assembly, with an eye eventually to the Hynix location for the manufacturing side,” he said. “That may not happen in one step.”

Hynix initially said it was looking at all possibilities for its shuttered plant: using it itself, using it in partnership with another company, or selling it to another company.

Now, Hynix’s goal is to sell the site, said Bobby Lee, the company’s Eugene spokesman. That could change, however, depending on the market, he said.

The burning question about Centron Solar is whether its direct sales approach will be successful.

The consortium plans to sell directly to solar panel installers, skipping the middle man, thereby lowering the cost.

“That model of selling direct makes some sense,” and it has worked for companies such as Amazon.com, Roberts said. “Fortunately, the way (Centron Solar) is doing it, it doesn’t look like there’s a large upfront investment to carry if things go bad.”

Local installers have mixed feelings

Local solar installers had mixed feelings about Centron Solar’s plans.

Steve Musser, renewables department manager at the Green Store in Eugene, said that Yuan dropped by the store a couple of weeks ago, and they established a good rapport.

Buying panels direct from the manufacturer could reduce prices by 30 percent to 40 percent, Musser said. That’s significant, he said, because the panels usually account for more than half the cost of the solar project.

Musser said he had mixed feelings about buying direct because he has relied on five or six distributors for years. However, he said, “I believe that bringing the cost down by going direct is very beneficial to society and would allow a lot more people to install solar, so I think that is the more important issue. We need to get the panels out there in the field making electricity as soon as possible and as much as possible.”

Musser added that if he does end up buying some panels direct, he’ll still support his distributors as much as possible.

Jim Wilcox, sales and marketing director at Solar Assist, another Eugene solar installer, said he hadn’t yet met anyone at Centron Solar.

He said he wants to learn more about the company and is excited about the possibility of more local solar industry jobs.

“We want to make sure the consumers are well protected by the company,” Wilcox said. “Solar panels generally have a 25-year warranty, so you want to make sure the company is reputable, and they can stand behind the 25-year warranty.

“We want to sit down and meet with them and discuss their products,” he said. “We’ll also do some querying within the industry itself, checking the background of the principals. One of the nice things about the solar industry is it’s a tight-knit group of people who are interested in protecting the integrity of the industry.”

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:

• The newspapers stories appear to rely entirely on one person, Ocean Yuan, for all their information about the company.

• Large Chinese manufacturing companies are alluded to as partners but not named and quoted.

• The company doesn’t appear to have much physical presence beyond its relatively small new website . The site registrant address is listed as a private home in south Eugene.

• The small rented warehouse location doesn’t look like much.

• With manufacturing done in China, it’s unclear what exactly people in Eugene would be doing. Is it a sales call center? An assembly facility? A corporate headquarters?

• Of the six people listed on the website as part of the company “management team,” only two live in Eugene. Two live in Portland, one in Vancouver, Washington and one in Atlanta, Georgia.

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.

“Honestly, this was news to us,” said Tim McCabe, director of the Oregon Business Development Department, who learned about the company’s launch on Thursday. “If it’s true what I’ve heard, it’s an exciting prospect.”

With a mission to sell solar energy at $1 a watt within a few years, Centron represents the unconventional — and aggressive — tactics of Chinese companies, now driving competition in nearly all sectors of manufacturing.

The company, currently with 10 employees, plans to sell panels directly to installers, cutting out the middlemen. Although the bulk of its manufacturing will remain in China, it plans to build several assembly plants across the country within the next couple of years, including one in Eugene, which will be home to a customer-support division. By early next year, the company expects to have between 200 to 300 employees.
“We’re moving at lightning speed,” said Yuan, a former executive for Solarfun, a major Chinese solar manufacturer, who was born in China and moved to Eugene 20 years ago. “We are so excited to get this off the ground.”

Chinese manufacturers are hungry to enter the U.S., which is expected to follow Europe’s lead in solar energy in the coming years. They are able to produce solar panels at lower costs than Americans or Europeans because of their low wages. And Centron promises that it can beat any price by at least 10 percent.

“Our mission is very clear, we want to make solar panels so cheap that 80 percent of American households can use it without subsidies,” Yuan said.

In the solar industry, lowering costs for solar panels has become a race to get to grid parity, the point at which solar can produce power to compete with conventional fossil fuels. It’s typically been pegged at about $1 a watt, though it’s higher in some areas.

Centron, despite being a newcomer to Oregon and the U.S., hopes to challenge SolarWorld and Sanyo, both now in Oregon. The company has already contacted 25,000 installers nationwide, Yuan said.

SolarWorld opened the United States’ largest solar plant on a 100-acre Hillsboro campus last fall, putting Oregon on the map. The company, with a strong reputation in the industry, is one of the older solar manufacturers.

Competition, says spokesman Ben Santarris, is everywhere and Centron’s foray into the U.S. may not make much of a difference.

“From our standpoint, we already have a lot of competition,” Santarris said. “We’ll have to see how big they are and how they operate. If it’s good for Oregon, it’s good for us. “

So far, Centron has gotten to where it is so quickly by doing everything unconventionally. Centron isn’t vertically integrated like other big solar companies such as SolarWorld. It’s horizontally integrated, Yuan said.

The modules sold in the U.S. are put together by 30 different companies in the solar hub of China, located in or near Jiangsu province on the outskirts of Shanghai. The companies specialize in manufacturing different components of a solar panel, from converting silicon to manufacturing cells.

They are assembled and then sold in the U.S. under the Centron brand, which was specifically created for the U.S. market with the help of Springfield-based marketing firm Polaris.

Yuan, 46, is an entrepreneur with experience in Chinese factories and the solar industry. In March, he left his two-year post as president of U.S. operations of Solarfun, one of China’s largest solar manufacturers, to pursue his own venture. By then, he already had a good idea of what he wanted to do: sell quality solar panels to Americans at extremely low prices.

A former English teacher from a rural province, Yuan moved to the U.S. after meeting a Eugene woman traveling in China. They married in 1990, and he received his degree in business and finance from the University of Oregon, going to work initially importing and exporting antique Chinese replicas.

“I came to the States in 1990, wanting to make millions,” Yuan said. “But I found the limited English I learned in China didn’t even work at a grocery store.”

Yuan worked his way to becoming the general manager of large Chinese factories making electronic components for companies such as Motorola. After moving to Shenzhen for eight years, he decided he missed the U.S. When the job offer from Solarfun allowed him to relocate, he moved back to Eugene.

With Centron, Yuan set about putting together a business model that cut out distributors in order to lower retail prices. Former Intel engineers helped him design the specifications for the modules. Then he went back to China this spring to find the companies who could make the panels with the specifications and quality he desired. The companies, he found, were thrilled at the opportunity to sell to the U.S.

“Instead of all these companies coming to the U.S. to compete independently,” Yuan said, “we decided to try to do something completely new.”

Centron’s leap into Oregon causes some to question its sky-high ambitions. And as a newcomer, it will take time to build a trusted brand and it will face perceptions that China’s cheap prices equal poor quality.

Bob Warren, business development officer for the state’s Business Oregon in Lane County, said he met with Yuan and some Chinese representatives several months ago and at the time they had yet to form a concrete plan.

Centron didn’t ask the state for any tax incentives or grants in their startup, though if they locate a manufacturing facility in Eugene, they could qualify.

“Really, we don’t know what’s real here and what’s not real,” Warren said. “It doesn’t look to me in the immediate future there are manufacturing jobs.”

Already, Centron has given samples of its panels to some installers, including the state’s largest solar contractor and designer Advanced Energy Systems, which is currently testing them.

“We’re doing a comparative analysis with all the best equipment in the world,” said Chad Biasi, a business development consultant with AES. “But they absolutely have a chance. Our market is just beginning.”

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.

Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy said she had met with the group’s representatives a couple of times, but hadn’t spoken with them recently.

Of course, we’re very interested in solar,” she said. “We believe it’s right for Eugene and right for our community energy goals.”

Piercy said that if Centron Solar does end up creating hundreds of jobs in Eugene, “it would be terrific. It would be wonderful. We’ve been really trying to encourage solar development here.”

A couple of other solar businesses besides Centron Solar have expressed interest in Eugene, Piercy said. “We’ve been following all the leads we get.”

Solar panel manufacture uses technologies similar to semiconductor manufacture. When Hynix closed its computer-chip plant in west Eugene last year, eliminating 1,000 jobs, it set off speculation that a solar manufacturer might take up residence there.

Yuan said his group looked at the former Hynix plant in March.

“The problem is it’s too clean,” he said. “We don’t need the cleanest of clean rooms for solar panel manufacture. The (cost of) maintenance and everything else is too high.”

Centron Solar moved into its Eugene facility at 4723 Pacific Ave., off Danebo Avenue, two weeks ago, and is storing solar panels there, Yuan said. “We’re already running out of space,” Yuan said. “We’re already eyeing the office complex in front of Hynix,” referring to the Westec Business Park.

Centron Solar plans to revolutionize the way solar panels are sold in the United States, he said.

“Our business model is different from anybody else in the solar business,” Yuan said. “We sell directly to installers, rather than going through distributors, so that keeps the cost lower.

“We want to make solar panels so cheap that 80 percent of American families can afford to use them and save electricity for the next 20 to 30 years.”

Financial details of the consortium’s plans were not disclosed.

The companies in the consortium already make solar panels in China, Yuan said.

“China produces over 50 percent of the world’s solar panels, but 90 percent (of them) are shipped to Europe,” he said. Only 5 percent of the solar panels in the U.S. market are produced in China, Yuan said.

The consortium would continue to make the panels in China, but “our vision is to establish multiple assembly shops around the nation in key U.S. areas,” he said.

Centron Solar probably would not site a large assembly plant in Eugene because it is not a major solar market, Yuan said.

“We want to build our manufacturing facilities closer to the customer,” he said.

The consortium has, however, chosen Eugene as “an ideal place for our foothold to establish a logistics center in the United States,” Yuan said. He said Eugene is strategically located along the I-5 corridor to serve the West Coast.

Yuan is not a newcomer to Eugene. He graduated from the University of Oregon’s Lundquist School of Business in 1993.

Greg Evans, a local educator, consultant and Lane Transit District board member, said he met Yuan when Yuan was a UO student, and the men have been friends for 20 years.

“This is very legitimate. Trust me,” Evans said.

“They’re the real deal.”

Evans said he has no financial interest in Centron Solar but that he is a consultant for the group in government affairs.

Centron Solar plans to formally announce its launch at the InterSolar 2009 trade show next week in San Francisco.