Mr.Sun Bachi

The top of a large steel vat swings open, and a slab of silicon, cut into pieces the size of large bricks, is lifted onto a conveyor belt.

On a mezzanine above the warehouse-style floor of the factory in Frederick, Maryland, Bill Good is monitoring two-meter furnaces that melt the silicon that goes into bricks, which are later sliced into wafers and turned into solar panels in a building next door.

Mr. Good, 53 years old, used to work in a landscaping business, but like many people around the U.S., he has found work in the alternative-energy industry. After two years, he said, "I could retire here."

That is the sort of job certainty many workers would envy. Growth in the solar, wind-power and biofuel sectors has been fast and promises to be enduring. This past Thursday, the solar division of London-based BP PLC announced a $70 million plan to double the capacity of the Frederick factory and hire 70 more people.

"The demand for solar energy is so strong, not only in the United States but around the world, that we have to keep up," said Lee Edwards, chief executive of BP Solar.

Boosters of solar, wind and biofuels have tried to sell them as pieces of a new American economy, but the nascent industries rely on many of the same skills and materials as the old American economy.

Wind turbines installed by Madison Gas & Electric Co. in Wisconsin, for example, were placed on towers that weigh 73 1/2 tons, mostly made of steel. They were built in Shreveport, Louisiana. Wind turbines also use components common in many endangered U.S. industries, such as gearboxes, rotors, control systems, disc brakes, yaw motors and drives, and bearings.

"What we need are policies that advance the climate for investment in these products," says Marco Trbovich, communications director for the United Steelworkers of America union.

The ethanol sector has been adding jobs, too. In August, U.S. refineries produced 27% more ethanol than a year earlier, and 48 distilleries are under construction. The solar industry has about 20,000 jobs nationwide, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. That is a small number, but Mr. Resch said it is rising by 35% a year.

Expansions like BP's add another reason -- along with environmental concerns and national security -- for boosters of solar, wind power and biofuels to use in pleading for more U.S. support in the form of purchases, targets, import limits, subsidies and tax breaks for alternative energy. The Apollo Alliance -- a group of environmentalists, alternate-energy firms and unions -- said in a 2004 report that a $30 billion federal program could create 3.3 million jobs over 10 years.

That sort of spending isn't likely, so the report's optimistic forecast won't be tested. But many U.S. governors and mayors are realizing that fostering renewable energy can be good for their states and cities. Under Gov. Edward Rendell, Pennsylvania has become a major purchaser of "green energy." In March, after receiving financing from the state and assurances from Mr. Rendell, Spanish wind-power company Gamesa SA said it would invest $34 million to manufacture towers and blades for wind turbines in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, which was hit hard by the closing of the last U.S. Steel Corp. facilities there in 2001. Gamesa expects to create 530 jobs.

"You're producing high-quality manufacturing jobs when others are moving out of the United States," Mr. Resch said. "If you look at the next high-tech growth industry in the United States, it can and should be solar energy."

BP is thinking about more than Maryland. It acquired a half-interest in the Frederick plant when it bought Amoco Corp. in 1999; it bought the rest from Enron Corp. Now it has about 15% of the U.S. solar market, Mr. Edwards, the BP executive, said last week.

As he spoke in the plant's control room, silicon wafers in another part of the plant were being cleaned, polished, stamped with silver wires, backed with aluminum, hooked together and placed under protective glass. To check durability, some panels were tested in machines that simulate harsh weather.

If they last as long as planned, solar panels might become competitive without government subsidies. Mr. Edwards said that every time industry capacity doubles, the cost of panels falls about 20%. Capacity has doubled over the past three years, but costs haven't dropped as much as expected because of a silicon shortage. Eventually, though, Mr. Edwards said, "if we can keep driving costs lower, we will reach a point where solar is the same price as grid power."

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As utilities Suez SA and Gaz de France SA hammer out the final terms of their merger ahead of a key Suez board meeting tomorrow, a rising number of shareholders are threatening to reject the deal -- an embarrassing potential outcome for both firms and the French government, which helped organize the deal.

Over the past few weeks, U.S. and European institutional investors whose holdings amount to more than 15% of Suez's capital have signed individual letters to Suez management to protest the terms of the planned 41 billion euros ($52.58 billion) deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

The merger, which will be put to Suez shareholders Dec. 29, needs to be approved by owners holding 67% of the capital represented at the meeting, so the recent protest letters constitute a substantial obstacle -- especially as less than half the stock of any company is typically represented at shareholder meetings.

Highlighting the rocky path ahead, France's finance minister said yesterday that the government -- a major shareholder in Gaz de France -- isn't willing to push through the merger at any price. "If [Suez] shareholders were to be too greedy, well, [the merger] wouldn't go through," Finance Minister Thierry Breton said in an interview broadcast on French radio.

A Suez spokesman said it was normal for shareholders to ask for more from any proposed deal. Gaz de France spokesman Jerome Chambin said that Suez shareholders, rather than focusing on the dividend, should focus on the fact that Suez's stock price has risen to about 40 euros from about 28 euros since the deal was unveiled. "If the deal doesn't go through, Suez's share price may fall heavily," he said.

If the merger fails, it will be a major blow to the conservative government of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. Mr. de Villepin announced the deal with much fanfare earlier this year, just days after Italian utility Enel SpA suggested that it was interested in taking over Suez. The all-French merger that ensued was seen by several of France's European Union partners as a heavy-handed move by Paris to create a national energy champion at the expense of cross-border cooperation.

Mr. de Villepin has been so keen on the deal that he even pushed reluctant lawmakers in the ruling UMP party to agree to a bill this fall that allowed for the privatization of Gaz de France -- a key to the merger going through.

"Politically, it's impossible to envisage a failure of this project," said Jean-Claude Lenoir, a lawmaker affiliated with the UMP party.

Under the original terms of the deal, Suez and Gaz de France proposed a one-for-one stock swap plus a 1 euro-a-share special dividend to be paid to Suez shareholders. The extra 1 euro payment for Suez shareholders was intended to compensate for Suez's higher valuation in the market. But over the past few months, Suez shareholders have grown increasingly bitter about the deal, saying they deserve a dividend of about 4 euros a share to bring the two companies' valuations closer into line. Some shareholders have gone so far as to clamor for a 9 euros-a-share special dividend to compensate for the fact that the French government will be a major shareholder in the new company. The French state currently owns 80% of Gaz de France; under the terms of the deal, it would own 34% of the new, merged entity.

One of the main opponents of the deal has been Eric Knight of Knight Vinke Asset Management LLC, which sent a letter in October protesting the merger. Now, several other shareholders -- including state pension funds from some of the largest U.S. states as well as large European banks and mutual funds -- have sent other missives to Suez management saying they agree with Knight Vinke's position.

Mr. Knight sent another letter last Friday to the Suez board and the French ministry of finance. The "proposed terms of the merger are completely unacceptable to us. We are writing to you directly to ensure that there is no doubt in the board's mind about our view on this matter," the letter says, according to a copy seen by The Wall Street Journal.

"In the event that GDF is unable or unwilling to agree to satisfactory terms, the board of Suez should not hesitate to call off the merger," Mr. Knight's letter says. "If it does so, the board can be assured of our full support and the support of most of the shareholders."

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