HUBBARD TOWNSHIP — SolaBlock is a Massachusetts-based solar and construction technology firm led by a son of the Mahoning Valley who was looking for a company to manufacture its product.

SunWize Power & Battery is a manufacturer of solar modules and power systems. Based in Oregon, the company also has ties to the Valley, specifically a manufacturing site in Hubbard Township, where a good portion of the company’s operations are located. Also, one of its top executives grew up in the Valley, too.

Now, they’ve partnered to help SolaBlock bring its Solar Masonry Unit — a solar photovoltaic (PV) module embedded inside a standard cement block that enables commercial building walls to become vertical solar systems — to market.

ORIGIN STORY

The eventual relationship can be traced back to a pointed question, asked by Rick Lewandowski, an adviser to SolaBlock who had decades of experience in the solar and renewable energy field.

“When he started looking at our business model, he said, ‘Why in God’s name are you making the solar modules yourself? There are so many companies that can do it faster, better, cheaper,” SolaBlock’s chief executive and Youngstown native Eric Planey said.

As a startup, SolaBlock needed to focus its energy on getting operational, and the cost to make the item would have been too high to sustain.

So, three potential manufacturers were presented to SolaBlock, including SunWize.

It was during a phone call the connection between the two companies became clear.

Thinking the company still had its operations center in New York, Planey was corrected during the conversation, that SunWize had relocated the center to a small town in Ohio — Hubbard Township.

“I go, is it off (state Route) 62 and (state Route) 7? They looked at me and their jaws dropped, and they said, what are you talking about?'” said Planey, who grew up on Youngstown’s South Side and once called Liberty home.

After they hung up, Planey said he told his staff to make sure they make “the most objective decision” because he would sign immediately to help benefit his hometown.

“We had to make the most objective decision for the business. As it turned out, SunWize was head and shoulders above the other two we were talking to — the quality of their product, the engineering expertise, etc.,” Planey said.

Still, “I do believe in karma, and I think there was some karma about getting together with SunWize,” Planey said.

The companies earlier this year announced a memorandum of understanding that calls for SunWize to make the essential solar module for SolaBlock’s unit.

So far, SunWize has delivered about 35 test modules manufactured in Asia but part of the agreement calls for SunWize to produce the modules domestically.

“We’re working diligently to figure out how we’re going to onshore that,” said David Eveland, chief executive of SunWize.

MOUNT EVERETT ROAD

SunWize is leasing two buildings — combined about 20,000 square feet — at the former Babcock Lumber yard on Mount Everett Road. It’s where the company does a bulk of its business.

“We probably do approximately 70% of our business out of Hubbard and the other 30% out of Oregon,” Eveland said.

The Oregon headquarters is in Albany, a gritty industrial town much like Youngstown.

Between the two locations and three satellite sales offices, the company employs 35 full-time workers and has a contracted workforce of 10 to 15 more people.

The company formed in 2014, spun off from SunWize Technologies, Inc. It started small, scaled back to about $5 million because of hurtful tariffs, Eveland said, but has grown steadily since.

Saugerties, a town in New York, was the location of SunWize’s manufacturing and distribution facility, but certain forces caused Eveland to search for a location elsewhere.

He was fond of the Pittsburgh area. In fact, he had scouted western Pennsylvania for “years as a potential place to move” because the company already had customers in the area and for its legacy of manufacturing.

Also, the company’s Vice President of Sales, Niles native Larry Waldron, moved back to his home state to Hubbard.

That move prompted Eveland to take a closer look at relocating to Pennsylvania, but the township, as it turned out, was a better fit, he said.

The company relocated around August 2022.

Among its product offerings, SunWize Solar & Battery produces modules that can be integrated into other products.

“That’s where the fit to SolaBlock comes in, is that custom module is something we are familiar with how to manufacture,” Eveland said “So when they called, it’s like we can actually do that. We have familiarity with that and that is what started the conversation.”

“As we talked more, they realized we have the commitment to do that here, we genuinely do. It’s not just lip service,” Eveland said.

WORKFORCE & JOBS

Access to an available workforce was a factor in SunWize Solar & Battery’s decision to relocate to the Valley.

People living here, Waldron said, believe manufacturing can provide a good career.

“A big part of it is, we knew people still grew up here with the idea that a manufacturing job is a viable option for them,” Waldron said. “In so many other places, it’s just out of people’s minds. They just don’t think about that as a career option. Here, that still exists. It’s well-rooted.”

The well-regarded technical and engineering schools in the region also played a role. Eveland admitted the company is still trying to fully connect to that pipeline, but it offers an advantage to companies.

“We have worked with so many young people who have come out of these tech schools and come out of these engineering schools that we know the resource exists,” he said. “And we know people are coming out of those schools and finding jobs that are in alignment with the jobs we have to offer, and they are happy in those jobs, happy with that as a career path.”

For SolaBlock to work with a company contributing to the region’s economy, “that is incredibly meaningful to me,” Planey said.

Also, “the Mahoning Valley, we still know, has manufacturing in its DNA,” he said.

“I think people in the Mahoning Valley, we lament about how much manufacturing has been lost, but we also forget about how much manufacturing there still is.”