Solar Conference 2007

Solar Energy Conference 2007 in San Diego was hosted by the California Center for Sustainable Energy . Presenter slides are here . Highlights of this well-organized high-quality event included:

• Solar thermal technology (heat water in pipes on your roof) is returning to the USA after dying a political death in the 1980s. Residential solar thermal is required by law in much of Europe, and is standard in China.


• The price of Photovoltaic (PV) is poised to drop 50% by 2012 while also increasing efficiency. There are several flavors of PV, each with advantages & disadvantages.


• Concentrated solar is likewise booming. This technology concentrates the suns rays on a pipe filled with a flowing liquid such as sulfur. The super heated sulfer is then used to turn a turbine to generate electricity.
  

Two vendors demonstrated vacuum-tube solar-thermal technology. The corrugated metal plate sealed inside the 2 meter long glass tube is insulated by the vacuum and heats efficiently when hit by the sun. A piece of the corrugated metal protrudes from one end of the glass tube and heats water that flows by in a pipe. This is the most common form of solar thermal in Europe.

Several conference speakers described why their company's PV technology was superior. Crystalline-based technology is the most efficient at 21% and is starting to benefit from economies of scale. It suffers, however, from the weight of the glass, and the need for a large sturdy frame to hold the glass.

Thin layers of metal vapor are applied to rolled sheet steel to create thin coat PV technology. The resulting PV module is flexible, lightweight, and does not require a frame. Thin coat is, however, only half as efficient as crystalline-base PV.

The event was keynoted by California Public Utility Commission Executive Director Paul Clanon who described the PUC's strategy for achieving the requirements layed out in 2006 assembly bill 32 by the year 2030. The 2nd keynote speaker was Brad Collins who is the president of the American Solar Energy Society and the Editor of Solar Energy Magazine. Brad presented a survey that the ASES conducted to establish a baseline for today's energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) markets. He measured dollars and jobs in today's EE & RE markets and then forecast dollars and jobs in the future under three possible forcing functions: conservative, moderate, and climate change is a national emergency.

Conference presenter Chris Gadomski pointed out that 40% of all cumulative installed PV is in Germany, which has one quarter the population of the USA. The fast growth of PV in Germany is due to feed-in tariffs started in 2000 that are paid to residents who sell their excess PV-generated electricy to the power company.

San Diego will host a larger solar conference in May, 2008 called Solar 2008