Last week, GetSolar visited the Intersolar North America Conference last week — it was a full 5 blocks from our office, so naturally our able bodied staff decided it would be worth the long and strenuous journey to the Moscone Center.

We walked around the impressive exhibits — many of which were as intricate as the design display rooms at an Ikea warehouse — and we chatted with reps from all kinds of companies. Exhibitors covered photovoltaics, solar thermal, concentrating solar thermal technology, public sector and media organizations with an interest in solar, specialized manufacturing, and almost anything else a solar enthusiast could dream up.

GetSolar also attended some of the conference proceedings on solar thermal technology, all of which were eye-opening. In one meeting, a German panelist made an interesting point: many of his colleagues had a cultural tendency to “overengineer,” or improve efficiency without a strong sensitivity to price.

The debate he highlighted could have easily emerged from a discussion of PV or of solar thermal. Should technological improvements focus on lowering costs before engineers try to raise the efficiency of their products?

Maybe priorities on this issue are strictly cultural. The panelist pointed out how American homeowners are more focused on payback periods than their German counterparts, who view renewable energy technology as a sensible long-term investment. Thirty-year payback periods don’t deter them, even though these would seem outlandish to many Americans.

So, for American customers at least, expanding the market depends on lowering solar panel prices. A lot of progress has been made over the past 12-18 months. Provided enough attention is paid to lowering costs — beyond the amount that’s paid to boosting efficiency — it’s reasonable to think this downward trend in prices may continue.