Sunny days are ahead for the solar industry

CAMARILLO, Calif. — Solar panels are easier to make these days, with solar cell production 200 times faster than 30 years ago.

The products also are a lot easier to sell.

Raju Yenamandra has seen the changes firsthand. He started working in the solar industry in the 1970s and is now sales manager for North America for SolarWorld Industries America, which is undergoing a $20 million expansion to triple the capacity solar module production in Camarillo.

The capacity is expected to grow from 35 megawatts to 100 megawatts a year by 2008. Production capacity of 100 megawatts equates to about 580,000 solar modules.

"Today, the industry is robust, vibrant and growing," Yenamandra said.

SolarWorld is already the largest solar manufacturer by production volume in the United States. And its parent company, SolarWorld AG, is among the top three solar companies in the world.

Yenamandra said there has been a major change in the solar industry.

In the mid-1970s, solar cells were a product looking for a market. Solar technology came from the aerospace industry, and companies were trying to figure out how to market them.

"It took a great deal of effort to sell them and a greater effort to manufacture them one at a time," Yenamandra said.

People were unfamiliar with solar cells and didn't know how they could be used or how reliable they were, he said. Making a sale took a lot of education.

Yenamandra said each solar cell in a panel from the late 1970s was handmade. Workers had to take each cell, clean it and screen-print conductive materials on both sides.

It used to take from three to four minutes to make a solar cell, compared with today's production line methods that churn out 50 cells per minute.

Many of these tasks are now automated, allowing the Camarillo plant to increase capacity without increasing its work force of 350 employees.

In the past, two-thirds of the solar panels made in Camarillo were exported for sale. Today, about 80 percent of the panels are sold in the United States.

SolarWorld competes with other solar companies that manufacture abroad because of cheaper production costs and import into the United States.