Solar energy organization honors Napoleon

Production worker Kevin Morris uses a machine to crimp the corners of a 250 watt solar panel frame at Isofoton in Napoleon today.

NAPOLEON -- The Solar Energy Industries Association was in Napoleon today to honor the community as "America's Number One Solar Small Town."

The SEIA is the trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry.

The group chose Napoleon for the honor because of public and private support of the solar industry.

Two solar firms, AP Alternatives and Isofoton North America, are located in Napoleon. The Campbell Soup facility in town has a solar array that helps power its plant, and the city has teamed with American Municipal Power to build a solar field.

“With a 10 megawatt PV system at Campbell Soup’s facility (and possible Phase Two), AMP’s 4.2 MW system with Isofoton panels, Isofoton North America’s new manufacturing facility, and several solar homes, Napoleon, Ohio is the biggest solar small town in the United States -- and deserving of national recognition,” the SEIA said in a statement.

"If 10,000 Napoleon citizens can put this level of solar energy platform together, there should be no barriers to doing likewise every and anywhere else in Ohio, a state where there is consumer and institutional demand, where local citizens want energy independence and diversity produced locally as much as possible," said Michael Peck, chairman of Isofoton North America.