The Oregonian

March 03, 2007

If anyone still doubts whether a good, green alternative energy policy can help power the Oregon economy, look at what the sun is about to start generating in Hillsboro.

A German company, the SolarWorld Group, has announced it will invest $400 million and eventually hire as many as 1,000 workers -- many of them highly skilled and well-paid engineers and researchers -- to manufacture solar cells at an unused chip factory in Hillsboro.

It's an especially timely piece of news for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who cannot get through a speech these days without veering off to tout the economic benefits of renewable energy. With SolarWorld's announcement, the governor now can cite a terrific new example.

As the governor hopes, this could be the start of something big in Oregon. SolarWorld could be an anchor in this state for a surging solar industry, which has seen sales grow by about 35 percent each of the past five years. Officials have been showing sites in Oregon to other solar companies, according to The Oregonian's Richard Read.

Meanwhile, the Oregon House of Representatives last week approved a package of tax credits and mandates likely to jump-start an alternative fuel industry in the state. Lawmakers can see that there's real money, and plenty of jobs, in a growing industry turning corn, canola seed, crop waste and woody debris into fuel for cars.

Too, this week a Portland-based electric co-op announced that it has joined with a private company to help develop a small wave energy project off the Oregon Coast near Newport. It could become the first utility-scale wave energy facility in the country.

All this should give more momentum in the Legislature for efforts to encourage alternative and renewable energy development in Oregon. There's likely to be a lively debate in Salem beginning Monday over Kulongoski's proposed renewable energy portfolio standard, which would require that in future years one-quarter of the state's new electricity would come from renewable sources such as solar, wind and wave energy.

The critics of Kulongoski's clean-energy and climate change proposals keep warning about the risks to Oregon's economy. Well, maybe. But all the evidence so far suggests that the governor is right to see a bright economic future in an Oregon ready and willing to build on renewable energy.