Solar 2013 Lights Up Baltimore

Solar 2013, Baltimore. Today is the last day of the 42d annual ASES National Solar Conference. The conference may not have drawn the large crowds as in previous years—the field for solar and renewable conferences is getting crowded—but those who attended were treated to a heavy dose of solar policy, feed-in tariffs and installation guidance.

One common theme at the conference was to learn from the experience of Germany, which has made tremendous strides that Germany to make solar and renewable a significant part of the energy output.  This has also brought the cost down and between 2006-2012, the installed cost of solar systems in Germany has declined by a whopping 66%. Germany’s goal is to generate 30% of its energy from renewable energy by 2030, and it is well on its way to meet that goal.

In a session on climate change, Bill McKibben, well-known activist and co-founder of 350.org attempted to fire up the crowd—by Skype. He implored the audience to “take on the fossil fuel industry” and sought to enlist as many as possible to join his organization “to come to jail”—especially the older members of the audience because after a certain age, “what the hell different does it make.”  He wholeheartedly supported proposed legislation introduced by Senators Sanders (I-Vermont) and Boxer (D-Calif.) to introduce a “fee and dividend,” a variant of a carbon tax that some say is inevitable if we want to get serious in combating climate change. McKibben seemed to concede that the proposed legislation has a next to zero chance of becoming law.  He concluded that we need to be on a “wartime footing to deal” with climate change.

For a less activist view, Solar 2013 presented Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Patricia Hoffman, who spoke of DOE’s efforts to modernize the grid. Hoffman is spearheading efforts at DOE to mitigate the damage to the grid from fires, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters. She suggested that Hurricane Sandy revealed that there is a huge role for solar to play to make sure that the grid remains an “enabler.” Solar power can contribute to providing emergency power for water pumping to supermarkets in the wake of a disaster. Emergency power has to continue to be part of the solution. She also suggested that there has been a spate of articles on the cyber vulnerability for solar systems and urged the crowd to make sure that the design of their systems incorporates protections against cyber attacks.

Sunnovations gives a presentation of its new system.

 

Exhibitors came from near and far to show the latest technology from installation, to monitoring devices, to racking. It was the first time I sat in the Chevy Volt, and when I saw that there was still 20 miles of charge left in the car’s batteries, boy I was tempted to push the “on” button to see how far I could go.