Aug 25 2015
SolarWorld, the largest U.S. crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer for 40 years, this week convenes about 500 solar installers and 40 vendors from across the country for an annual summit of meetings and celebrations, this year keying on the company’s 40th anniversary of American manufacturing.
Hailing from as far as Hawaii, Massachusetts, Guam, Mexico and Canada, the third annual SolarWorld Installer Summit will showcase technical, marketing and business sessions as well as an awards ceremony to recognize the biggest impacts that attendees have made in spreading solar technology nationwide.
The event takes place Tuesday through Thursday at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront and includes tours of SolarWorld’s U.S. manufacturing in Hillsboro. There, the company continues its build-out of on-campus solar, as Sunlight Solar Energy Inc., a SolarWorld authorized installer, breaks ground on a 250-kilowatt solar system.
“This robust turnout of highly capable installers is evidence that solar is becoming an ever-bigger part of the nation’s energy mix, and that it’s here to stay,” says Ardes Johnson, U.S. vice president for SolarWorld. “Along their path, they are laying the groundwork for a more sustainable energy supply for generations to come.”
A backdrop for this year’s summit – SolarWorld’s largest – is its celebration of SolarWorld’s 40 years of U.S. production. Bill Yerkes founded Solar Technology International in mid-1975 at a time when few people viewed solar as a source of terrestrial electricity generation, then he and legacy owners did much to industrializes manufacturing of solar panels.
SolarWorld has been the U.S. legacy of Solar Technology International since buying its industrial lineage in 2006. Today, the company operates consolidated operations at a plant employing more than 800 workers in Hillsboro, Oregon – the largest crystalline silicon manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere.