Sep 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - JC Reindl The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Likely Toledo mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski yesterday proposed putting a $5 million solar panel field atop the Dura Avenue Landfill that could generate electricity for the city while further energizing northwest Ohio's burgeoning solar energy industry.

Mr. Wilkowski was joined by City Councilman Joe McNamara, who said he would submit a request today to Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's administration for an initial $1 million allocation for the project in the city's 2009 capital improvement budget.

With $1 million buying about one acre's worth of solar panels, the full five-acre, $5 million field could be financed and built in pieces, said Mr. Wilkowski, who is a lawyer.

'I've said for years that we have to stop being just a cheerleader for solar energy and we have to start doing things to actually move that market forward,' said Mr. Wilkowski, a former Lucas County commissioner, city law director, and Toledo school board member.

Although Mr. Wilkowski, 52, said it's his intention to run for mayor in 2009, he was coy about when he would formally declare his candidacy: 'All in due course. All in due course.'

He ran for mayor in 2005, finishing third in the primary election behind Mr. Finkbeiner and then-Mayor Jack Ford.

He said he was pushing for this solar-field project now rather than later because this week is the deadline for submitting requests for 2009 capital improvement projects.

Northwest Ohio is considered a leading region in the country for low-cost solar panel production, and both Mr. Wilkowski and Mr. McNamara, who yesterday afternoon stood together gripping a solar panel, said that building a municipal solar field would further the region's leadership in the industry.

The Toledo-born company First Solar Inc., headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., with its sole U.S. factory in Perrysburg Township, had the fastest-growing stock last year on Wall Street.

Toledo's Xunlight Corp. on Nebraska Avenue is another bright spot. The solar panel manufacturer and developer received tens of millions of dollars in investment capital from around the world in recent months.

'We design solar panels here, we manufacture solar panels here, we should use solar panels here,' Mr. McNamara said. 'If we're the solar capital of the world, we need to have some sort of demonstration of that.'

If built, the proposed five-acre solar field would be among the largest in the area and one of the few large-scale city-owned arrays in the state.

The ground-mounted photovoltaic cells would produce about 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, or enough to power 112 homes, Mr. Wilkowski said. Its electricity either could be plugged into the wider electrical grid or put to use powering city buildings.

Mr. Wilkowski said he has read about communities in New York, Florida, Colorado, and California putting solar fields over landfills, but has yet to hear of any in Ohio.

The Dura landfill in North Toledo, between Lagrange Street and Stickney Avenue, was capped in 2000 after decades of leaking industrial waste into the Ottawa River.

Sixteen companies that once used the landfill paid for the cleanup.

Councilman McNamara said this solar project needs to move forward despite the looming general fund operating budget deficit, which might reach $7 million this year at current spending levels.

He said the electricity produced by the solar panels ultimately could save the city money, although it's unclear how much. 'It's projects like this that actually have a payoff to the taxpayer and create jobs that are important,' Mr. McNamara said.

Mr. Finkbeiner did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Contact JC Reindl at: jreindl@theblade.com or 419-724-6065.

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