PSMA Update

nterSolar North America Conference was held from July 9th till July 11th in San Francisco, California. It is a conference about the development of solar energy business in photovoltaic and thermal technology and applications. San Francisco, being a bastion of liberal/progressive thought, and one of the most accepting cities for the renewable energy was an appropriate place for this conference, though it is not known for sunny and warm days. People who do not know San Francisco's weather will be surprised to know that this wonderful city is usually foggy, windy and cold during the summer months. Mark Twain, the famous American author once quipped "...the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco...” Luckily, during the InterSolar conference, the weather in San Francisco was warm and sunny.

In any case, San Francisco was very welcoming to the InterSolar conference. San Francisco has made considerable progress in the renewable energy and plans to become the "greenest" city. The highlight of the conference belonged to Jerry Brown, the Governor of California, who gave a rousing keynote address. Jerry Brown challenged the audience to use their talent, ingenuity and collaborative efforts to fight climate change through implementation of renewable energy, and promised that California will provide them a platform for the business and to lead the way.

For the success of renewable energy, three entities need to come together in a synergistic and collaborative form. The technology that can commercialize the products, the financial institutions that can finance various infrastructure projects and the local governments who can cut the red tape, provide incentives for the early adoption and be sympathetic to the wider cause of climate change. The InterSolar conference brought all these three stakeholders together to create a perfect business union.

While attending the InterSolar conference, I noticed one significant difference between this conference and the Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) which I normally attend. While APEC, an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) conference is mainly a technical conference with many technical papers and relatively few business papers (there were none at last two conferences), InterSolar was full of topics, talks and issues related to the business aspects of renewable energy. It is not that one conference is better than the other, but the goals of these two conferences are completely different.

While at APEC, blatant promotion of companies is forbidden, at InterSolar NA, it seemed well accepted. Enphase Energy announced that according to IMS, "...Enphase Energy is now Number one PV Inverter company in America...” Companies cannot make such announcements at APEC or in its vicinity.

APEC is sponsored by IEEE Industrial Applications and Power Electronics Societies (IAS & PELS), and the Power Sources Manufacturers Association (PSMA), all non-profit organizations. InterSolar NA is organized by Solar Promotion International GmbH, Pforzheim and Freiburg Management and Marketing International GmbH (FMMI). Solar Promotion International is listed as a privately held company and FMMI is Freiburg Management and Marketing International GmbH, owned and operated by the City of Freiburg. It is very clear that APEC and InterSolar are organized with different missions and goals. APEC focuses on the technology, while the InterSolar focuses on the business
.
One InterSolar conference participant, who has also attends APEC, summarized both conferences; "...at APEC, what is inside the box, the technology is discussed, while at InterSolar, what is outside the box, the business is discussed...”.

Renewable energy is an exciting subject because of its wider social, cultural and political appeal. It is a social movement. When an individual installs solar panels on the roof of his/her house or drives a Toyota Prius hybrid electric car, he/she makes a statement that addresses the climate and its changing effect on the environment. Renewable energy is a business with social consciousness; it mingles short-term profit and loss with long-term environmental impact and responsibility. It is an area where scientist, technologist, environmentalist, financial gurus and politicians rub shoulders with each other for the perceived common and public good. InterSolar NA had the atmosphere of technology hubris and awareness of public good humility. It was an endearing onward looking conference.

The views expressed in this article are solely of Mohan Mankikar. They do not represent the views of PSMA. Mohan Mankikar has been a part of the power supply industry for over twenty five years. An active member of the PSMA since its founding, he had been a board member of the PSMA and currently serves on the Advisory Council.