(Washington, D.C.) Standard Solar, Inc. CEO Tony Clifford addressed top Administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, during the White House’s Clean Energy Economy Forum held today in the nation’s capital. Clifford joined business leaders and experts from the Federal government to develop strategies that grow clean energy manufacturing and services to create jobs and build the economy.

Clifford urged policymakers not to fall victim to conventional thinking that the best place for wind farms is in the northern Great Plains and the best place for solar is in the Southwest.

“Photovoltaics and solar thermal are inherently distributed sources of power that can be used anywhere in the United States, not just the sunny Southwest. Since panels can be installed on rooftops, parking lots and ground-mounted, they provide power where it is being consumed – without the need to build expensive, long lead time transmission and distribution (T & D) systems,” he stated.

Clifford said this on-site production of power, known as “Distributed Generation” will emerge as a prominent energy source that competes at the customer’s retail cost of power, not the utility’s cost of generation. “Distributed Generation systems in net-metered applications will be cost-competitive far sooner than huge centralized systems that rely on new T & D infrastructure,” he continued.

“Policies that support Distributed Generation will create green jobs more quickly; and those jobs will be distributed throughout the country. It is imperative that we recognize that cost competitiveness with the grid will create an enormous number of new green jobs; and our policies should be focused on the quickest way to get to cost competitiveness,” he concluded.

The Forum was held to discuss strategies to advance the development and commercialization of new clean energy technologies, supporting the creation and growth of emerging industries and small and medium enterprises, promoting exports, and training workers for the clean energy economy. Administration officials also discussed the need for comprehensive energy and climate legislation that will help the nation transition to a clean energy economy, create jobs and enhance America’s competitiveness.

Standard Solar is a full-service developer, integrator and installer of solar electric systems for academic, commercial, government and residential customers throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.StandardSolar.com.