Sunny forecast rises for solar panel start-up in Perrysburg

Michael Cicak, chief executive of Willard & Kelsey Solar Group LLC, said the company is due to receive a $10 million state-backed loan by the first of next week that is "integral" to the firm's plans to begin producing up to 120 rigid 70-watt solar panels per day.

The loan from Ohio's $150 million Advanced Energy Job Stimulus program was announced in 2009. The Ohio Department of Development said the company has received a $500,000 Rapid Outreach Grant, and is in the process of receiving a $5 million research and development loan, and up to $350,000 for worker training through the Ohio Workforce Guarantee.

"Without that money [from the state], there's no way we could have accomplished what we're trying to do here," said Mr. Cicak, founder of the company, named after the East Toledo intersection near where he lived as a child. The company employs about 70 people, but expects to add about 200 workers in the second half of this year from among more than 14,000 applications and resumes it has on file.

Chief Financial Officer Mossie Murphy said the firm's rigid cadmium telluride panels - the same type of solar panels built by rival First Solar LLC at its plant in Perrysburg Township - are in limited production and are not being sold commercially. Equipment for the company's first full-scale production line is on order, Mr. Murphy said, and is expected to be installed in its 262,000-square-foot plant on Progress Drive, off State Rt. 25 in the former Delafoil plant, by year's end.

Mr. Murphy said the solar start-up has "letters of intent" from companies and organizations eager to purchase its products, but won't have any paying customers until it begins production of "saleable" solar panels. He said customers are eager to purchase thin-film panels because most of First Solar's annual production is already sold.

The main difference between First Solar's panels and those planned by Willard & Kelsey "is the coating" on the glass, Mr. Cicak explained. First Solar coats its panels horizontally while Willard & Keley will coat its vertically, allowing for twice the per-day production, he said.

Mr. Cicak is a former executive with Glasstech Inc., a precursor of First Solar, and was an associate of the late Harold McMaster, the local industrialist credited by many with founding northwest Ohio's growing solar industry. Mr. McMaster began the company that later became First Solar.

Mr. Cicak said the company has purposely kept "a low profile" until it starts production. However, it was thrust into the national spotlight in June, 2009, when Vice President Joe Biden visited the plant to tout the administration's efforts to stimulate the economy through green jobs. At that time, Gary Faykosh, chief operating officer, told reporters that the firm planned to add 360 employees by Jan. 1, 2010, to the 40 it had at the time. Those plans did not materialize because of problems securing credit, Mr. Cicak said.

"It takes cash to generate cash," he said.

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:

lvellequette@theblade.com

or 419-724-6091.