SOLAR 2010:
Going Mainstream
As renewable energy approaches grid parity, the industry’s focus shifts from
technology development to implementation, and especially to marketing and labor issues.
By SETH MASIA
The American Solar Energy Society’s (ASES’) National Solar Conference returned to Phoenix in May, 55 years after its debut there in 1955. Most conference functions were held
in the Phoenix Convention Center, an impressive
five-story, 1-million-square-foot, LEED-certified
building with 100 kilowatts of amorphous silicon
plastic-backed photovoltaics (PV) glued to the
flat, reflective-white Energy Star roof.
Attendance rose 13 percent over SOLAR
2009, with 5,181 registrants. Exhibitors at the
trade show numbered 189, up 30 percent over
SOLAR 2009. Conferees presented 145 technical papers.
Panelists at the opening plenary outlined
some of the strategic issues the solar industry
faces, and the discussion circled around pushing
renewable energy technologies into the main-
40 July/August 2010 SOLAR TODAY solartoday.org
Seth Masia ( smasia@solartoday.org) is deputy editor
of SOLAR TODA Y.
stream. Most of the expert panelists implied that
low-carbon technologies are on the cusp of widespread adoption based on grid parity, and the
transition is inevitable with or without a national
energy policy.
Participants were moderator Ray Suarez,
senior correspondent for NewsHour on PBS;
Brad Albert, general manager of strategic planning
and resource acquisition for utility Arizona Public
Service (APS); Denis Hayes, director of the Bullitt Foundation and organizer of the original Earth
Day; Amory Lovins, chairman and chief scientist
at Rocky Mountain Institute; and Cathy Zoi, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable
energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Suarez launched the discussion by noting
that “it’s hard to know what anything costs” in
today’s energy market. In that respect, he said,
energy issues are like the health care debate. He
asked, “How can we strip away the maze of sub-
sidies and externalities, simplify the issues and
establish a free market?”
Zoi responded that, for the consumer, the
most effective way to understand energy use is
simply to install a smart meter so that real-time
energy use can be monitored. Albert agreed,
noting that the dashboard electric-flow meter in
his Prius is a great training device — it radically
changed his driving habits. A home meter would
do the same.
Lovins spoke more directly to the point.
“Energy prices are everywhere distorted by sub-
sidies,” he said. “Subsidies for nuclear energy
often exceed the construction cost of the reac-
tor. Obviously, that soaks up all the capital that
might otherwise flow to renewable energy proj-
ects. Renewables would do fine if all energy tech-
nologies were desubsidized.”
Suarez noted that some subsidies are invisible:
“For instance, we don’t price the cost of dumping
our waste into the atmosphere and water.”
“Nature always gets the energy price right,”
Hayes said. “If an animal uses energy inefficiently, it dies. When we price coal, we don’t count
the cost of treating black lung disease, mercury
poisoning and disasters.”
