Jackson Free Press

Solar energy has generated a lot of attention in Mississippi in recent weeks as the Legislature approved an incentives bill to persuade Calisolar, a California-based silicon manufacturing company, to build a factory in Columbus.

But Calisolar is not the first solar-energy factory to locate in Mississippi. Stion, a solar-panel manufacturer, opened a factory in Hattiesburg Sept. 16. In May, Twin Creeks Technologies, which also manufactures solar panels, opened its first full-scale production facility in Senatobia.

Solar energy has also been in the national news lately with the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar-panel manufacturer backed by a $535 million federal loan. In a statement announcing the bankruptcy, the company said it could not achieve full-scale operations quickly enough to compete with larger foreign manufacturers, and cited a "global oversupply of solar panels" as one of the reasons for the company's struggles.

Solyndra is the latest in a series of casualties in the solar-energy industry. SpectraWatt in New York and Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts both filed for bankruptcy in August, placing some of the blame for their financial troubles on falling solar-panel prices and competition from China.

Despite Solyndra's high-profile failure, proponents of solar power in Mississippi said the state is poised to take a leading role in alternative energy.

Calisolar's Columbus facility will make polysilicon, a material used in solar panels. Bloomberg reported last week that the company is firing 80 people at a solar-cell plant in California as it shifts its business model to focus on polysilicon.

Companies in Jackson's fledgling solar-energy industry hosted a ribbon cutting Sept. 17 for the first completed solar-powered system in Jackson. Sundial Solar Power Developers installed the system at Central Mississippi Health Services' southwest Jackson clinic on Robinson Road.

Dr. Robert Smith, CEO of Central Mississippi Health Services, said he expects the clinic to save 50 percent on its energy bill, which will help it control health-care costs while protecting the environment.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. added that although the clinic was the first completed solar-energy system in the city, solar-powered houses are now being constructed in midtown Jackson.

The ribbon cutting was part of "Solar Saturday," a series of events the Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association hosted Sept. 17 to bring awareness of solar energy to Mississippi.

C. Tucker Crawford, president of the association, said solar energy can save people money, and within the next 10 to 15 years, solar-powered households might not have to pay a power bill at all.

"You may have read some criticism of solar energy in the news lately, but those are just hiccups," he told the group at the ribbon cutting.

Crawford told the Jackson Free Press that Solyndra's bankruptcy is not characteristic of the solar-power industry as a whole.

"You'll see those kinds of failures from time to time, but our industry as a whole on a global scale is still expanding rapidly, so Mississippi is poised to take a leadership role in that, especially with three new plants," he said. "I think it's going to create a lot of new jobs."

Crawford said companies in the South will start buying solar panels and other materials from a regional source instead of from overseas or from California.

Annie Shirley, president of Sundial, said she is not sure yet whether her company will work with Stion, but having companies in the state would help Sundial get materials quickly.

"If you have to go out of state, it takes a little while—I want to say six weeks, maybe a month—but with companies in the state, it should help us a whole lot," she said.