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Ohio continues to stake its claim as one of the more solar-visionary states in the U.S., both in terms of nurturing a growing photovoltaic manufacturing base and putting the power panels (and its people making and installing them) to work.

The latest example comes in the form of more than $13 million in grant awards just funded by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program (the first to be awarded from said program). Although some of the dough has been designated for wind and solar thermal projects, the lion’s share—more than $7.4 million—will go to 15 solar photovoltaic power installations to be deployed throughout the Buckeye state.

The scale of the planned PV projects falls in the commercial/industrial/government sector sweetspot, between 76KW and 488KW, and the sites themselves range from public park structures to a convention center to carports to office buildings to a zoo to transit bus barns to an art museum to factories. Collectively, the projects will add nearly 2.8MW in clean energy to the grid. The individual grants range from just over 200 grand to a cool million for a couple of the developments.

The projects submitted for consideration were chosen via a competitive review process based on several criteria, according to the state: project readiness and ability to be completed within 12 months, a matching investment of at least 50%, and direct economic impacts to create and retain jobs in Ohio.

Speaking of direct economic impact, local (and creatively named) companies like Third Sun Solar & Wind, Repower Solutions, Advanced Distributed Generation, and Dovetail Solar & Wind have won the gigs to install the PV power systems, resulting in some much-needed job creation in a state that had a 10% unemployment rate in October.      

The hardhats will be racking up and plugging in Sharp and First Solar modules, according to state documents, at least for the majority of projects that have designated their brand of choice. Those First Solar CdTe panels are made in Ohio, and the Sharp units will likely come from the company’s plant in Tennessee, just a few states away.  

In a great example of solar PV industry synergy, 3336 or so First Solar modules will make up Pilkington North America’s 250MW array to be installed near the company’s R&D facility by Advanced Distributed Generation. Pilkington is a key vendor of the thin-film PV manufacturer, supplying its high-end glass for the CdTe panels.

In addition to the Pilkington project, a closer look at the Ohio list reveals several intriguing installations. 
 
The 93KW PV array comprised of 396 Sharp modules to be built on the rooftop of IGS Energy’s HQ in Dublin will be one of the first systems to be installed on a “solar-ready commercial facility” and play a key role in helping the company achieve LEED certification for the new building.

The Metro Regional Transit Authority’s $1 million grant will help fund the installation of a 488KW Sharp-equipped system situated on its central bus barn in Akron, which will reduce energy costs there by as much as 33%. (Full disclosure: PV-powered mass-transit facilities are one of my fave types of public-sector installations. Something about solar going where carbon used to reign….) The site already has a 133KW PV power plant, so the combination of the two will make the authority’s plant one of the largest “single-array” systems in the state.

Another municipal installation will never have to worry about PV panel theft. A 117KW system is set to be deployed across four new carport structures (which will be manufactured in Ohio) adjacent to the police station in Bexley.

The good people of Toledo will have two of its more artistic and animalistic public institutions benefiting from solar power soon. The Museum of Art will get a 100KW rooftop system with First Solar panels (to go with its existing 101KW PV power plant [see adjacent photo], also First-equipped, which was commissioned in 2008), while the Zoo will soon have a more exotic 103KW pole-mounted distributed array (also sporting First modules) dotting its main parking lot.

The state’s PV manufacturing sector continues to grow (and has benefited from various governmental assistance as well), as First Solar rounds out its latest expansion in Perrysburg, CdTe upstart WK Solar appears on the verge of opening its first production facility, Xunlight ramps its initial thin-film silicon manufacturing line, and Isofoton readies its plans to build a crystalline-silicon module factory.

Once that new production capacity comes online, the Buckeyes’ homegrown solar power revolution will likely feature even more “Made in Ohio” panels installed across the state.