TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Solar Inc., a Perrysburg-based solar energy equipment supplier, has appointed new executive staff, according to a press release Tuesday.
Tom Pratt, the managing director of Cleveland-based business consulting firm Applied Business Strategy LLC, has been appointed interim president, treasurer and secretary of Toledo Solar by the company's board of directors.
Investor Sean Fontenot has been appointed chairman of the company's board. Fontenot, who is also on the board of companies CalEthos and Sparta BioPharma, according to his LinkedIn page, will oversee Toledo Solar's daily operations with Pratt, according to the company's press release.
A statement in the press release addressed a recent lawsuit filed against them by Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar. The First Solar lawsuit alleges that Toledo Solar claimed it made solar panels it installed at the Ohio governor's mansion when they were actually First Solar's panels.
"The investors in Toledo Solar remain strongly behind the Company and its people, and we are fully engaged," Fontenot said in the press release. "The recent First Solar complaint was a very concerning surprise. We are finalizing gathering all of the facts around this and expect to resolve the matter shortly. From our perspective, First Solar and Toledo Solar are critical partners in several critical industry programs that are important to the Government's US Energy Security policies for American-made solar products, and we are re-dedicating our commitment to making sure this continues."
To disguise the solar modules, it appeared that Toledo Solar etched a new serial number on the outside of the top glass panel of the module and that the company replaced First Solar's junction box on the back of the module with a new junction box, the complaint said.
The lawsuit lays out three main instances of "false designations:"
- False claims that it manufactured in Ohio solar modules that were installed at the Ohio Governor's mansion in Columbus;
- False representations that solar modules it sold to a distributor were manufactured by Toledo Solar in Ohio; and
- Falsely advertising that certain solar modules were manufactured by Toledo Solar in Ohio.