Sun Peeks Through in Solar

The Wall Street Journal

The solar-power business is expanding quickly in the U.S., helping lift the cloud that has surrounded the industry since the demise of Solyndra LLC a year ago.

But the growth isn’t coming from U.S. solar-panel manufacturing, despite the money and rhetoric devoted to the industry by the Obama administration. Instead, it is in installations of largely foreign-made panels, whose falling price has made solar more competitive with other forms of power.

“There should be little emphasis put on where the panels are made,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity Corp., which finances and installs rooftop solar systems. “Most of the jobs are in delivery and they’re long-term, permanent jobs.”