La Conner group tours Burlington solar panel plant

La Conner leaders saw a shining example of solar power's potential during a two-hour tour of a state-of-the-art production plant in Burlington Thursday morning.

Mayor Marna Hanneman, town councilor Mary Wohleb and resident Terry Nelson, who along with Wohleb is a founding member of the Skagit Valley Clean Energy Cooperative, met with Silfab Solar officials inside the firm's 220,000-square-foot automated facility where residential and commercial solar panels are manufactured for a growing market. It opened four years ago.

Solar generation is expected to increase from 3% to 20% of U.S. electricity between now and 2050.

Silfab Environmental and Social Governance Director Ted Ferguson believes that the Toronto-based company, which employs 250 local workers, is well positioned to serve both the present and next generation's anticipated changing energy demands.

"These are exciting times," Ferguson told the La Conner entourage. "We love to have people like you here to know that we produce these products in Washington state and the U.S."

Wohleb, with no small amount of pride, shared with Ferguson and Silfab Research and Development Programs Manager Josh Williams that "La Conner is one of the first jurisdictions to sponsor solar (energy)."

Williams guided the La Conner group through the modern plant and described the intricate process and precise, specialized tools required to produce solar panels. To protect the company's proprietary rights, no photographs could be taken.

Automation is necessary on several levels, said Williams, singling out the soldering of tiny panel pieces.

"There's not a guy who's going to be able to solder something so small," he said.

Williams, who is involved with a half-dozen cutting-edge research projects at any one time, said that the Burlington plant has a maximum production capability of 1,000 to 1,200 panels per day.

The facility's technology, he and Ferguson said, is geared toward production of silicon panels that can efficiently convert sunlight into electrical energy (400-450 watts each), are environmentally sound, aesthetically pleasing, affordable for consumers and pass exacting quality control tests.

Williams noted that the U.S. was first to invest its innovative muscle into solar energy, then backed away for a time while China began directing more of its resources into the sector.

"Now we're playing catchup after a decade of doing nothing," Williams said.

Silfab aims to narrow the gap. The company has plans in the near future to open a solar cell production plant in South Carolina.

Ferguson said South Carolina, like Western Washington, makes sense as a facility site.

"The two things we look for are water and power," said Ferguson. South Carolina is also an ideal base to serve East Coast markets.

Ferguson praised Washington state for taking a lead role in helping revitalize solar energy. Locally, the Solarize Skagit program is conducting a major campaign now through July 4 that secures for home and business owners discounted prices for solar system installations.

Hanneman spoke glowingly of the tour afterward.

"I was struck by how clean and quiet it was in there," she said.

Nelson, who has actively promoted solar power since the 1970s, often asked knowledgeable and technical questions as the group toured the plant, some 40,000 square feet larger than the average Walmart Supercenter.

Wohleb put the day in its most succinct terms.

"That was fabulous," she said.