California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses Solar Power 2006

Clean Energy is the Future. Clean Energy is our Strength.

Over 7,000 registered participants reconfirmed the Solar Power 2006 Conference and Expo as the largest US business to business solar event.

To a packed, standing room only crowd of over 1000 attendees, Governor Schwarzenegger took less than 9 minutes to review his progressive policies and legislative accomplishments to drive solar energy adoption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I suggest you watch the official webcast here (or my amateurish video of the intro on YouTube). Towards the end of his address, Governor Schwarzenegger launched the Go Solar California web site (http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov) with all the information folks need to get involved in the Million Solar Roofs Program of the California Solar Initiative.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides was also invited to address Solar Power 2006, but Mr. Angelides opted to keep an appointment on the Adam Carolla radio show (see Solar power or hot chicks? Pick one on the SFGate.com Politics BLOG).

After the Governor’s keynote, most Solar Power 2006 attendees grabbed a catered lunch and split for the rest of the conference closing day.

The first post Arnold session, Renewable Energy Prize Finalist Presentations from the California Clean Tech Open, provided insight into the technology and business plans of startups greenvolts, CoolEarth Solar, and Sun Phocus Technologies.

greenvolts has developed an off-axis microdish mirror concentrating sunlight onto a receiver with a III-V terrestrial solar cell, and greenvolts proposes a 3kW array of microdishes arranged in a CarouSOL configuration for high density tracking installations.


CoolEarth Solar has the “out there” proposal for 250 times concentration using material from potato chip bags for disposable concentrator dishes with internal solar cell receivers mounted on low cost, ground mounted rails.


Sun Phocus Technologies plans to use their HoloSun hologram technology to concentrate selective sunlight wavelengths onto solar cell strips sandwiched between glass substrates.


By the way, there are many more Solar Power 2006 keynotes, presentations, and interview webcasts hosted here. I recommend the Keynote Address On Innovation (Vinod Khosla - President, Khosla Ventures) and the Technical Plenary Session Solar Power 2006 (Richard Swanson, Martin Green, and Michael Geyer) for starters. Unfortunately, the Concentrating PV: Ready for Market? session was not recorded for webcast, and about 100 attendees crammed into the small Hilton meeting room or stood outside in the hall to learn about Concentrating PhotoVoltaic technologies and market plans.

The SEIA and SEPA are promising to get conference presentations posted on a password protected website for registered attendees as soon as possible. As I stated for EU PVSEC, presentations should be posted at the end of each conference day.

The Celebrating Solar Innovation Wine and Food Pairing Reception, sponsored and hosted by Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) and co-sponsored by Akeena Solar, Inc. (OTC:AKNS.OB), had the best wine, food, and networking of the Solar Power 2006 party scene. All the featured wines were from California wineries with solar photovoltaic system installations. I nominate the Peju Province Winery 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Bottled, Napa Valley, as the best wine of the tasting, and I had two servings of the food pairing, Boeuf a la Nicoise.