Daring expansion on tap for new solar company
Eugene-based Centron Solar wants to build six plants, blanket the U.S.
Portland Business Journal - by Erik Siemers Staff Writer
Two months after starting up, 
Centron Solar Inc. is mapping out a plan for national expansion.
The Eugene-based solar panel manufacturer says it wants to open as many as six assembly plants across the United States in the next two years as part of a plan to become the nation’s lowest-cost provider of solar panels and a dominant brand in the world’s fastest growing solar energy market.
“Our goal is very, very clear and simple,” said Ocean H.Y. Yuan, president of the private company. “We want to make solar affordable to more than 80 percent of American households — without a government subsidy.”
Solar analysts say Centron could be hitting the market at a tough time. An oversupply of panels is diving down prices for even the most established panel-makers.
Worldwide panel production capacity this year will grow 14.3 percent to 7.5 gigawatts, while less than half that — about 3.9 gigawatts — will actually be installed in 2009, according to industry research group iSuppli Corp.
The price of average crystalline solar panels, meanwhile, has fallen from an average of $4.50 per watt last year down to $3.10 today.
Even at $1 per watt — Centron’s goal — it could be difficult to get traction.
“It’s going to be tough to convince people to pay for it at all when you can still price quality stuff at a discount,” said Nathaniel Bullard, a U.S. solar market analyst in Washington D.C. with London-based 
New Energy Finance Ltd.
Centron is a consortium of more than 30 Chinese solar supply chain manufacturers that decided to join forces under a singular brand rather than tackle the U.S. market independently. Each company holds an equity stake in Centron, though Yuan declined to detail how much has been invested.
The panels will be made by the consortium’s member companies, reducing the need to invest in new manufacturing equipment for the U.S. Should one company go out of business, another company within the consortium will be chosen to manufacture new panels or replace panels sold previously, Yuan said.
The company intends to market directly to companies that install panels, avoiding the use of distribution networks that act as middle-men between manufacturers and panel installers.
It already submitted a bid to sell panels to Washington, County-based 
Nike Inc.
Centron has already imported several million dollars worth of panels to its Eugene headquarters, where it plans to employ up to 300 workers in sales, technical support, and a small panel assembly operation. It now employs 10.
Yuan is the former president of Chinese cell and module-maker 
SolarFun Holdings Ltd.’s U.S. operations, but has a background with electronics assembly companies like Florida-based Jabil Circuit Inc. and Singapore-based Flextronics International that operate dozens of assembly operations worldwide.
While other solar companies assemble panels for the U.S. market from a single location, Centron plans to employ a strategy similar to electronics assembly companies by opening up to six plants in key markets across the country.
Last week the company visited with officials in Vancouver, Wash., where Yuan toured a former Panasonic plant. While Yuan said the plant is too outdated for Centron, the company is enticed by new a incentive passed this spring by lawmakers in Washington that pays consumers 54 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced from panels made in-state.
Yuan said the company is also eyeing sizable markets where existing power costs are high or where state incentives are strong.
“In solar currently, there are very few people that have multiple assembly operations around the world,” Yuan said. “That’s what we envision the future (to look like) when the market takes off, and it will start taking off next year.”
Bullard said Centron’s low-cost strategy might work for cost-conscious residential customers. But as an unknown brand, the company may have difficulty landing large commercial projects reliant upon fickle lenders.
But solar remains a relatively new and evolving frontier, meaning almost anyone has a chance to succeed.
“They’re not to be underestimated in my view,” said Eric Nill, vice president of finance at Eugene-based Advanced Energy Systems, one of the state’s largest solar electronic contractors, which is now testing 11 Centron panels. “In solar, it’s a new industry of sorts in North America. We’re behind where they are in Europe in the installed base of solar capacity, so everybody’s got to start somewhere.”
esiemers@bizjournals.com | 503-219-3418