The largest solar project east of the Rocky Mountains is not dead, despite a setback this week at the hands of state regulators, vows the venture's developers.

"We are hopeful we can find another way to do this project," said David Celona, spokesman for developers New Harvest Ventures LLC of Gahanna, near Columbus, and Agile Energy LLC of San Bruno, Calif. "This project is too good to fail."

Nor will the delay in the project kill the commitment of a large European solar panel maker that established its North American headquarters in Ohio primarily because of the development, said Michael Peck, chairman of Isofoton North America.

The company has already built a production line in Napoleon, Ohio, near Toledo, and its 33 employees are busy turning solar panels for other smaller projects, he said.

The 49.9-million-watt Turning Point Solar project planned for Nobel County on 750 acres of reclaimed strip mine land would require about 250,000 solar panels - enough to enable Isofoton to move to a three-shift per day operation with a staff of about 125.

Turning Point was to have been developed in conjunction with Columbus-based American Electric Power's subsidiary, the Ohio Power Co.

The plan was that AEP Ohio would take all of the millions of watts the array would generate, thereby meeting the state's requirement that by 2025 a power company obtain at least one-half percent of all the power it sells from solar arrays.

For nearly two years AEP Ohio has tried to persuade the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to approve construction of the project -- initially estimated at more than $200 million but probably now about $150 million because solar technology has gotten less expensive and more efficient.

The Achilles heel in AEP's campaign, however, was its proposal to have all AEP customers help pay for the project -- whether they buy power from AEP or a competitor.

So, for nearly two years, FirstEnergy Corp.'s unregulated subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, has opposed the project, using every conceivable legal maneuver to object. FES had help from a group of industries, the Industrial Users of Ohio.

Working together, they challenged whether AEP Ohio could even propose the project in the case it had filed that focused primarily on the company's long-term power needs.

Later, they challenged whether the project's output would be needed to meet solar mandates, and they vociferously challenged the legality of passing the costs on to AEP customers buying from other suppliers and having AEP deliver the power. Such an arrangement is permitted under law, though in narrowly defined cases.

AEP Ohio's reaction to the 3 to 1 split vote by the PUCO this week denying approval has been cool. "We are disappointed with the Commission's decision to turn the project down. It was a unique opportunity to leverage Ohio jobs and make an environmentally friendly investment," said spokesman Terri Flora. "At this time, we are still considering our next steps and reviewing our options to meet the renewable energy standards."

The vote was a surprise to the commission's staff because it rolled over the agreement they had worked out with AEP Ohio -- and filed in the case docket, where it had withstood some of the criticism from FirstEnergy.

Only one commissioner, Steve Lesser, voted against the commission's three-member majority, reasoning it was clear to him that Ohio would need such large projects before 2025. And even his colleagues who voted against approval encouraged AEP to look for other ways to finance the project in their ruling.

Celona, representing the private developers, said one way to move forward would be for the developers to persuade other power companies as well as AEP Ohio, along with large electricity customers such as universities, to sign long-term agreements to buy the power.

Celona believes that the cost of solar-generated electricity will be the same as natural-gas generated power by 2015 or 2016 because gas prices will increase and solar technology is improving.

Isofoton, in the meantime, is looking to an agreement it has with American Municipal Power, the supplier to Cleveland and more than 100 other municipal systems. AMP and its members intend to build a total of 200 megawatts - four times the Turning Point output - of solar power with a number of small projects.

Peck said the state gave the company $15 million in loans and grants and the company is committed to working with the state.