SPI 2009 is about double the size of last year’s conference–in 2008, that was quite hard to picture, large and vibrant as the conference was. But a doubling of the size has diminished rather than exacerbated the mayhem of a show this large: it’s well structured, and attendees seem to be easily navigating the myriad channels of workshops, sessions, and exhibitors.

And of course it hasn’t all been work, work, work. With strong sponsorship from Sharp Solar, LDK Solar, the Department of Energy’s EERE, Southern California Edison, and others, SPI09 was able to throw a bash for attendees at nearby Disneyland (in Adventure Land, in fact), and after hours and private receptions have kept the networking going far past the official 6pm end of each day’s show. Last night, doors stayed open for the public until 8:30 as well, drawing in the solar curious as well as many local solar professionals.

Presented by SEPA and SEIA annually since 2004, Solar Power International has grown at a rate of about 40 percent per year. Next year’s event will be held in Los Angeles. SPI09 has been a roaring success, capturing the optimistic and market-savvy mood 0f the solar industry right now. We look forward to seeing what another year of development and growth will mean to the industry.

Solar Power International 2009 Finishing Strong

“I call it a warming up,” Ron Kenedi, vice president of Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group, said in an interview [earlier today] at the Solar Power International conference being held in Anaheim, California, this week.

And it’s not just hollow enthusiasm manufactured to drum up money from investors. According to Reuters, Sharp is returning to the 30 to 40 percent growth rate that was characteristic of the solar industry before global oversupply sent panel prices plummeting and the financial crisis put a temporary stopper on financing for new projects. While prices for panels have tumbled roughly 35 percent over the past seven months, Kenedi observes that the fall has reached a “plateau.” As an apparent gesture of its faith in its own pronouncements, Sharp expects to increase its market share across a variety of solar segments, ranging from small residential projects to utility-scale endeavors.

The utility-scale market is an especially important foray for Sharp, as it is the place where it is planning to target its new thin-film solar cells.

The lower cost of thin film is seen by Sharp and competitors as the best way to build utility projects because they are cheaper to produce than traditional silicon-based solar panels. U.S.-based First Solar dominates the thin film solar market, but Sharp aims to put as much thin film on the market as its silicon-based products.

Sharp doesn’t plan to waste any time—it has already planned to ramp up production at its new thin-film plant in Osaka, Japan,  in March 2010, where it will start off with a modest 480 megawatts and expand to 1 gigawatt.

What do you think? Is Sharp’s optimistic prediction wishful and premature…or bold and spot-on? Or is it still too early to tell?

Sharp Foresees Solar Recovery in 2010

• Over 900 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees expected, more than double the size of last year’s conference
• Keynote speakers include Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who will give a talk entitled “Green Gold Rush: A Vision for Energy Independence, Jobs, and National Wealth”
• Roundtable sessions with CEOs of companies like Photon International, LIPA, and SunPower
• Pre- and post-conference full and half-day workshops, in addition to three days of sessions devoted to six different tracks
  • Cross-cutting
  • Execution & Implementation
  • Finance
  • Markets
  • Policy
  • Technology
• Public night on Wednesday, October 28, 5:30-8:30pm: special workshops and informational sessions directed towards consumers

Plus, the opening reception is at Disneyland and you just never know when the Governator might drop by. October 27-29, Anaheim: we’ll see you there!

Solar Power International 2009 Next Week

The passage of the ITC extension has incited a fervor that even our current economic crisis can’t cool. Which is not to say the crisis, or its potential impact on the solar industry, was being ignored–far, far from it. Conversation almost always rounded back to that issue. But if the ITC had not been passed before this conference, I think the discussions of our solar future would have had the grim tone of survival strategizing rather than the confident optimism I saw expressed by so many different players on the solar scene, from new tech designers all the way down to the laid-off Wall Street-ers scouting the job market.

We at GetSolar were pleased to see how positive the response was to the value we represent both to installers and consumers. We were kept busy talking interested show participants through the GetSolar process and explaining our role in the expanding market, but we made time to get out there and explore some of the hundreds of other exhibits as well. Doing this gave us the opportunity to learn about new technologies (like concentrated solar thermal integrated with PV in a single unit); to get great insight into solar processes (like how cells are actually rolled out in production); and to get some feedback from those installers, with whom we already have relationships, on how they like working with GetSolar.

On the night of the show that was open to the public, we met folks who covered the whole spectrum of interest in solar: just walking by and saw the sign, done a bit of research and not sure it’s right for them, done lots of research and now looking for the right installer, already installed and looking at advances in the field…and all the gray areas in between.

The incredible turnout at this show says a lot about solar in America. Everyone’s waiting, of course, to see if the President we elect in November will take solar’s potential and transform it into the valuable piece of the economy and of our energy future that we all know it can be.

Governor Schwarzennegar, who delivered an address the night before the conference officially kicked off, spoke passionately about his belief in the future of solar and about how the current administration has bridled its momentum so far. Once the bit is off, he made clear, California will leap ahead, eager to continue to provide the kind of leadership on solar legislation and integration that it has to date. Considering that we spoke with solar players from places as diverse as Montana, South Carolina, Texas, New Hampshire, Washington and Oklahoma (aside from the more usual suspects, and not to mention Europe), it looks like the mometum is building nationwide. The planners have their work cut out for them: it won’t be easy for Solar Power International 2009 to cap this show.

Solar Power International 2008: Success!