A Jessup-based solar panel installation company opened a new operations and distribution center in Jessup Friday, a move that the company’s vice president said was prompted by dramatic growth in the solar business in Maryland.

Chesapeake Solar’s new facility, at 8280 Stayton Drive, is 13,300 square feet and will serve as a distribution center both for the local company and its parent company, groSolar, LLC, of Vermont, said Richard Deutschmann, vice president of Chesapeake Solar.

 “We feel like it’s going to be very good for the environment and very good for business in the Atlantic region,” Deutschmann said.

Chesapeake Solar was founded in 1999 and since 2005 has been housed in the EnviroCenter, an office suite of environmentally minded businesses in Jessup, according to Deutschmann.

Chesapeake Solar has about 22 employees but expects to add another seven or eight with the new facility, Deutschmann said. He said the company will continue to maintain its sales, marketing and legal team in about 800 square feet at the EnviroCenter.

Deutschmann said the company’s sales doubled from 2007 to 2008, which he attributed to the state of Maryland making solar energy a priority.

Among the buildings the company has installed solar panels in, he said, are a library in Columbia, Merriweather Post Pavilion and a U.S. Coast Guard office in Baltimore.

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