“Solar is a complex global market with a wide variety of participants — from banks and governments, to manufactures and distributors. As evidenced by the massive increase in size of Intersolar North America 2009, this is an event that brings together the entire solar value chain to connect, develop partnerships and help define the vision for solar’s future,” said Markus Elsaesser, CEO of Solar Promotion International GmbH, organizer of Intersolar North America. “With the massive infusion of public and private capital over the last year, there has never been a bigger opportunity for solar’s growth — despite the economy. Intersolar North America 2009 will help our industry seize every advantage to advance solar as a ubiquitous energy source,” Elsaesser said.

For a diverse global industry including photovoltaics and solar thermal for both residential and commercial markets, the challenge of patchwork of regulations, incentives and quality standards can hinder market success. Intersolar North America’s exhibition will help both domestic and international solar businesses connect with other businesses to strengthen their positions and further the industry. Exhibitors from around the world, such as Solar World (Germany), LDK Solar (China), Nexolon (Korea), Schuco (Germany), Applied Materials (U.S.A.), Canadian Solar (Canada) and Acciona Solar Power (U.S.A.), will be among the 500 companies featured at the 2009 expo, designed to create access for attendees to the entire value chain of companies that make up the $50 billion international solar industry.

Intersolar North America is the premier exposition, attracting the top suppliers, buyers and technologists who are leading the charge toward the greening of America,” said Dan Martin, executive vice president of the SEMI PV Group. “Visitors will gain keen insight into the North American and global solar industries by taking part in the vast array of educational programs and discussions offered to create strong global relationships for those within the industry.”

Intersolar North America 2009′s exhibition programs are also expanding to accommodate the growing needs of the solar industry this year, including the expansion of the Innovation Exchange and the addition of the Job and Career Forum. The Innovation Exchange, which showcases innovative and new products or services in 25 minute presentations, will feature double the amount of planned presentations by exhibitors.

To help the industry fill the potential 5 million green jobs needed by the renewable energy industry over the next 15 years, according to The RAND Corporation, the Job and Career Forum, powered by Solarjobs.com, will host a variety of presentations on available training programs, the solar job market and details on future career opportunities within the solar industry. To connect attendees seeking solar jobs and companies looking to fill positions, the Job and Career Forum will provide free job search computer terminals, and will feature Solarjobsplus – Executive Search and Talent Management, a dedicated program to address the recruitment needs of senior and specialist candidates.

About Intersolar North America

Intersolar North America is the most diverse international business-to-business trade show in the United States for the global solar industry. As the only solar trade show in North America dedicated to recruiting companies across the solar supply chain from around the world, Intersolar helps the industry improve global supply, distribution, training, regulation and business issues in order to accelerate market transformation and advance solar as a significant part of the global energy supply. Intersolar North America 2009 features an expected 500 exhibitors and 15,000 trade visitors in San Francisco’s Moscone Center West on July 14-16. Intersolar North America was created in 2008 as a sister event to Intersolar in Munich, the world’s largest and longest-running solar technology trade show. http://www.intersolar.us/.

SOURCE Intersolar North America

SolFocus has recently announced that they have developed a new form of photovoltaic cell that will reduce overall costs while delivering more effective energy output levels. The array design features bowl-like mirrors that will focus energy directly onto a one-square-centimeter solar cell. By doing this, the cells will further concentrate the light nearly 500 times, thus improving the cells overall efficiency.

SolFocus expects that their first installation will be I place producing nearly 500 KW by the end of this summer. The company also suggests that power from their arrays will be as cheap as energy produced by more conventional means. This announcement could be just what this nation needs to hedge off dependence of foreign energy sources, try to think of it as drug rehab for the economy. Speaking of drug and alcohol rehab in regards to stemming dependence on foreign energy, SolFocus has announced their summer campaign may be drawing to a close, but there will be similar programs beginning this Autumn and continuing into the new year.

Source: TechnologyReview 

Solarbuzz.com is a great resource for individuals and businesses that are interested in learning more about solar power, its applications and its future. Solar buzz also offers insight into groundbreaking technology as well as conference information from around the world. Conferences are held at a number of fine resorts and conference centers worldwide. Who knows, someday they may sponsor conferences at laughlin hotels or some other exotic hot-spot.

Being plugged in to the industry, Solarbuzz.com offers a number of great tools such as “Solar Buyers Guide” as well as customer tips and cost generators. There is also a lot of interesting and though provoking content, so take your time and explore the site. Solarbuzz.com is a must read for individuals looking to make the move to clean and sustainable solar power.

Source: Solarbuzz.com 

Ms Miller a representative from BP Solar recently indicated that Australian states are their own worst enemy when it comes to Solar Power adoption. So far there is only a single state in Australia that has adopted legislation that is remotely friendly to consumers and companies that want to invest in solar energy in Australia.

Ms Miller told the third international Solar Cities Congress in Adelaide what was needed now was action from governments around Australia to adopt feed-in legislation, to make switching to solar power more economical for individuals and companies.

So far, South Australia is the only state to have moved on the issue by last week introducing into parliament feed-in laws which will allow consumers to sell back electricity they produce in their homes or businesses to the grid at a profit.
If approved, the SA laws would allow consumers to be paid twice as much for any electricity they return as they would be charged for it.

States ‘standing in way of solar nation’

This is by no means just an Australian problem. It is actually very common throughout much of the world. Local politics, especially at a state or province level often blocks the adoption of solar power or blocks the ability for electricity producers to sell electricity back to the grid when they have excess.

Australia is considered one of the countries with a very low carbon footprint when you look at the amount of energy they use and how they produce that energy.

Critics suggest that the percentages in Australia are actually stacked because the country has not built out the infrastructure to use electricity and electric appliances at levels similar to those seen in the US or even Europe. This skews Australia making them look more progressive in alternative energy than they really are. When in fact, they just do not use a great deal of energy.

Note. This Article was initially targeted for publication in February of 2008.  It was lost somewhere in the editing shuffle, probably back during the winter when our editors were spending too much time playing xbox 360 instead of doing their jobs. Our Publisher has officially cracked the whip and the editors have gotten back to work. 

Carriers subsidize consumers purchase of cell phones by getting their customers to agree to 1 or 2 year agreements.

Used to be 1 year but these days 2 year agreements are the norm.

Solar energy equipment sales companies could sell their products to energy companies that could then subsidize the cost of the equipment.  It would be akin to a decentralize energy company.  Instead of having a powerplant, they would have a network of homes holding solar power panels collecting energy (or other forms of energy generating systems such as wind or generators or something).

The company could then keep some of the energy generated by the home owner that is sold back to the grid and the homeowner would benefit from having to buy less actual electricity from the grid themselves.  The entire arrangement could further benefit home owners if the company provided technicians to install and monitor the equipment in an optimal method, possibly even making seasonal adjustments to panels.

I came across one company that is already planning to test a system similar to this model called Santee Cooper in South Carolina.  They require the following for a trial program they are running with a limited number of homes:

Be a Santee Cooper residential customer

Agree to receive power though the Green Energy Buy Backs Program, also known as net billing program, for a minimum of five years

Sign a five-year Solar Homes Initiative agreement

Have owned and occupied the chosen free-standing property for a minimum of one year

Use the property as a primary, single family residence

Complete installation of the solar equipment by December 31, 2008

Santee Cooper program offers financial help installing solar panels

Its not a total solution but a partial solution.  Santee Cooper is essentially helping people get a subsidy of about $17,000 on their equipment.  That kind of support is like finding super bustiers as opposed to just getting a bit of a lift.  That may be a bad analogy, but $17k in essentially what boils down to a subsidy tied to a long term contract could go a long way to making solar energy a reality for many home owners.

This video starts to talk a bit about selling energy from your home back to the grid when your solar energy system generates more electricity than you are using, say like during the middle of the day when you are away from home and at work.

YouTube – Solar Las Vegas: Center for Energy Research

Its I think important to notice that there seems to be a critical mass of acceptance and production that might march all of us towards acceptance. Today people are more interested in say diet supplements like hoodia or hydroxycut, but as the price of energy rapidly increases talking about solar energy and gathering together the solutions to make them part of our lives might accelerate in a big wave of acceptance.

The speaker here talks about the local political level that seems to be driving acceptance this time around.

Dr. Al Jaber said: “Few studies of this size and with this level of participation have been undertaken outside of the laboratory. Our involvement will generate a wealth of original data and strengthen ties with the leading names in the PV industry. It will also position Abu Dhabi as an ideal location for the testing and verification of PV, spanning all crystalline and mature ‘thin film’ technologies.”
The competition site may be a modest plot of land at Masdar City near Abu Dhabi International Airport, but the implications are profound for the companies taking part. The results will help determine how renewable power is ultimately realised for Masdar’s zero carbon, zero waste city, which will one day be home to as many as 50,000 residents and hundreds of renewable energy businesses.
The site houses 26 one-kilowatt at peak (1KWp) PV modules mounted on aluminum structures; the equipment has been designed and installed by a major PV system integrator. The long-term testing will be carried out in cooperation with TÜV Rheinland of Germany, a leading authority on PV system performance and certification.
The generated electricity is converted into alternating current and fed directly into the local grid, representing the first grid-connected solar power system in Abu Dhabi history.
Masdar is at the forefront of research into larger scale applications of solar power and recently signed a contract with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to explore solar tower ‘beam down’ technology, an advanced solar thermal process that offers lower electricity generation costs and higher efficiency.
Photovoltaics is solar power technology that uses solar cells, either made from silicon or ‘thin film’, to convert sunlight directly into electricity.  Masdar Puts Solar Power To The Test

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahayan is the hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi (UAE). He is the son of Sheikh Zayed Al Nahayan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates.

Under the twin pressures of a veto threat by Bush and a Republican filibuster led by Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, Senate Democrats on Thursday stripped from the bill provisions to extend and strengthen tax incentives for homeowners and businesses that install solar energy products, and other clean energy measures, offset with $21.8 billion in tax hikes, mostly on the oil industry. 

Senate passes energy bill minus renewable energy tax incentives : National-World : Albuquerque Tribune

While consumers and voters were shopping for Wii’s for the teens, Webkins for the kids, and a truck bed liner for mom or dad, the politicians decided to skip clean energy and shoot for cheap.

It is a stark contrast to the credits available in Europe that extend many years into the future.  It is in stark contrast even to many third world countries that are funding entire solar energy systems to bring power to homes that have never had electricity.  It is a distinct protective step backwards for the US.

The Power is in the Windows

New technologies offer up the ability to apply thin plastic solar power gathering material on high rises.  Other nanotech solar products might even be sprayed on some day.  But for the technology to take off it needs to be purchased.

Vegas corporations have the money to invest in the technology, they have the real estate in terms of high rises and in terms of windows,

These new technologies offer a number of benefits in terms of results and in terms of cost savings (as compared to buying more traditional solar power photovoltaic solutions).

Upside

• Uses less polysilicon (Silicon like all natural resources, is in short supply.)
• The Film is cheaper to produce
• more durable
• more aesthetic
• The sheets can serve as insulation, facades, even a shade for the inside of the building against the heat of the sun in the summer.

Almost half the cost of production from traditional solar energy products comes from the materials required to produce them and this innovation and technology not only make it cheaper to produce, but it can be deployed on existing real estate with minimal costs of installation.

Downside

Currently they Generate less power per centimeter than traditional technologies.

Who will Field this Technology and Benefit First?

Vegas hotels are in the right spot at the right time with the right resources to benefit from this technology and from this investment.  They are also in the right place to broadcast and advertise the message to the world.

They could even run advertisements on the film and charge money for that, and I can guarantee you that Vegas rarely backs away from an opportunity to earn money from advertising.

Source – Thin-film solar sheets seek time in the sun