In a flipped role, Air Products in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania flipped the switch on the country’s largest thin-film solar array earlier this week.

The company is a major supplier of gasses and other supplies needed for solar panel manufacturers to turn silicon into power producing solar modules. But now those same companies that Air Products has supplied for years are supplying Air Products with electricity.

The company installed 2 megawatts of solar thin film panels from its customers Astroenergy and ENN Solar on 15 acres at its campus. The installation will provide about 15 percent of the energy needed in the company’s administrative buildings, said Air Products spokesman Robert Brown.

It also reduces the company’s carbon emissions by about 2,000 tons per year, according to a press release from the company.

He said that the company’s products are used to make flat-screen televisions, thin-film and some traditional crystalline solar panels as well.

“We went with thin-film because we decided that it offered the best levelized cost of energy,” Brown said. “It was the most attractive technology for our situation.”

The company began exploring the idea of installing solar a couple years ago because the state legislature had voted to deregulate the cost of power.

“We knew costs for electricity were going to go up,” Brown said. “And this was just good timing.”

In 2010, Air Products applied for a $1 million grant from the Pennsylvania government, which had set aside sums for renewable energy projects in 2008 that were still available. The 2008 Alternative Energy Funding Bill covered part of the cost of the installation, Brown said. The money was administered by Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Financing Authority.

“We made the announcement last July that we were going to go forward with this,” Brown said.

It took about a year to plan and implement the solar project, including time for the grant application and approval process.

"It is really special to be able to demonstrate our customers' products and begin generating clean, renewable energy for our campus,” John McGlade, Air Products CEO, said in a statement. “It is a great opportunity for employees, our community and our customers to witness first-hand how our innovative products deliver sustainable solutions for photovoltaics customers.”

Photo credit: Monica Cabrera for The Morning Call.