Gary Hattery brings enthusiasm and ideas to the many projects and endeavors that have been part of his career in advanced materials. He grew up in Middletown, in southwestern Ohio, amidst the steel, paper, and tobacco industries that were thriving at that time. The son of two college-educated parents, he didn’t see his future in the steel mills, as did many of his high school buddies, but rather knew from about the eighth grade that “chemistry sounded neat.”  

“Like a lot of youngsters, I had my chemistry set and managed to stink up the house; then I got excommunicated to the garage,” Hattery says with a chuckle. “But it was my high school chemistry teacher, who had worked as a chemist in the steel mills, who took us to see chemistry in action in a blast furnace that helped convince me that chemistry was where I wanted to be.”

The Ohio State University Extension service is deeply involved in a renewable energy project bringing solar energy resources to Wyandot County, Ohio. With a jump-start from Ohio Senate Bill 221, which set out the requirements for solar generation, American Electric Power (AEP) issued a request for proposals to build a solar generation facility. What is really striking is that the planned facility, when fully functional, will feed approximately 10.08 MW to AEP for distribution on the power grid.  Furthermore, it will be the largest solar generation facility in the Midwest and one of the largest in the US. At capacity, the facility will literally prevent tons of carbon dioxide emissions into  the air because solar is clean, green power. Further, approximately 100 construction jobs will be tied to the project. The solar panels, themselves, will come from First Solar, Inc. in Perrysburg, Ohio.