Dan Gross/The Gazette “We’re now operating in nine or 10 states and the Caribbean,” says Anthony Clifford, CEO of Standard Solar in Rockville. “We’re a major player with national aspirations.”

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While working in the late ’70s for Solarex, then a solar energy company in Rockville, Anthony E. Clifford called on James Schlesinger, the nation’s first energy secretary, to pitch an installation at the Department of Energy offices.

“He was polite but declined,” said Clifford, 62, now CEO of fast-growing Standard Solar, also in Rockville.

Fast-forward three decades. Clifford’s current employer installed a 205-kilowatt system of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the Energy Department building in Washington that he said was then the largest solar array between New Jersey and central Florida.

It just goes to show you never know what may come of a sales call.

“Well, those companies weren’t related,” Clifford said. “But it was an interesting development.”

Clifford credited that Energy Department project with catapulting Standard Solar to a new level, making Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the nation in 2010 and 2011.

Founded in 2004 by Neville Williams, another longtime veteran of the solar industry, Standard Solar was the eighth-fastest energy-related business and 181st overall with revenues last year of $23 million. That was almost 1,700 percent more than in 2007, when revenues were $1.3 million. Standard’s number of employees has increased to about 100 from just three when Clifford joined in early 2007.

“It gave us an understanding that we can execute on larger projects,” Clifford said of the DOE installment. “We also cracked the code on financing for these projects. That’s something a lot of solar companies still have challenges with. ... The DOE roof project helped put us over the top.”

Standard Solar has since installed several other larger projects, including a 505-kilowatt system at American University in Washington. In total, Clifford has helped bring more than 6 megawatts of solar-generated electricity to the state in the past year.

But his work promoting solar energy is not limited to Standard. As president of the Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia chapter of the Solar Energy Industries Association, he has advocated for important legislation and policies to help grow the solar industry, said Kathy Magruder, executive director of the Maryland Clean Energy Center. The center last week honored Clifford with the 2011 Industry Leader Award at its Maryland Clean Energy Summit in Baltimore.

“His expertise and leadership are directly related to the successful growth of jobs this sector is seeing now in Maryland,” Magruder said.

Early solar advocate

After growing up in northeastern Pennsylvania, Clifford earned a political science degree at Penn State and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

He had job offers from companies he wasn’t really interested in, before a former professor involved in the energy industry steered him to Solarex.

As Solarex’s first MBA hire in 1975, Clifford became vice president for corporate development and helped grow annual revenues to upward of $150 million. Solarex worked with terrestrial solar applications, incorporating technology from NASA and creating the first commercially viable applications for solar power that were not launched into space, he said.

Solarex constructed a manufacturing plant in Frederick, and was then was purchased by Amoco Oil in the 1980s, later becoming BP Solar.

After the sale to Amoco, Clifford worked as an energy consultant and was a senior executive or CEO of several technology businesses that were sold to larger companies, such as Nikon and Wackenhut. He also co-founded a renewable energy institute and wrote a DOE report on tax-incentive financing for such projects.

When crude oil prices hit $65 a barrel several years ago, Clifford decided to get back into the solar energy industry. That’s when he met Williams and helped boost Standard Solar’s profile.

“We’re now operating in nine or 10 states and the Caribbean,” he said. “We’re a major player with national aspirations.”

Maryland has better solar policies and incentives than Virginia, he said. Maryland ranked eighth in second-quarter photovoltaic installations tracked by the Solar Energy Industries Association, up from 14th in same quarter of 2010 and ahead of states that have more sunny days such as Florida and Texas.

The national solar market was $6 billion last year, up 67 percent from 2009, according to the trade group. The number of solar installations last year more than doubled from 2009 and is projected to double again this year.

“We have worked hard to get those policies in place here,” said Clifford, who has a solar array on the roof of his Washington house. “The outlook is bright in Maryland. A lot of credit goes to the Maryland Energy Administration.”

The state incentives include rebates for homeowners and grants for commercial solar customers. Maryland also is part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, using proceeds from the sale of carbon dioxide allowances to fund clean energy programs.

In addition, state legislators this year passed a key law for solar companies allowing solar water heating to be eligible as a “tier one” clean energy resource and thus eligible to count toward Maryland’s solar energy diversification goals.

Prices for such systems have come down significantly in recent years, Clifford said. The average installation cost for a photovoltaic array is about $4.50 per watt for residents and $3.50 a watt for large commercial clients. He expects the price to continue to drop.

“A rooftop solar system is now competitive with the utilities’ conventional system with the incentives. In a few years, it will be competitive without the incentives,” Clifford said. “That is what has opened people’s eyes to solar, that it’s economically viable.”

kshay@gazette.net

Anthony E. “Tony” Clifford.

Age: 62.

Position: CEO, Standard Solar, Rockville.

Education: Master of business administration, University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration; bachelor’s in political science, Penn State University.

Professional: President, Maryland-District of Columbia-Virginia chapter, Solar Energy Industries Association; Maryland Clean Energy Center advisory board member.

Awards: 2011 Industry Leader Award, Maryland Clean Energy Center. Special Achievement Award for Technology Demonstration, U.S. Department of Energy.

Residence: Washington, D.C.

Family: Wife, Ellen Kirsh; three adult children.

Hobbies: Travel, visiting wineries.