Solar-Geek Gathering Grows

Noah Kaye, director of public affairs at the Solar Energy Industries Association, wrote in an email today that last week’s Solar Power 2006 Conference & Expo in San Jose lured more than 7,000 registered attendees. “Turnout at Solar Power 2006 shattered our expectations,” he wrote. That’s a far cry from the 1,100 who attended last year, and it doesn’t even include the additional 2,000 who attended the public night October 17.

Those numbers make Solar Power the largest solar conference in the world so far, with Dresden’s European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition—which previously claimed the title—boasting 6,500 attendees this year. It’s another sign that some see California as the next big market for solar, while worrying that the German market—by far the largest today—could be shrinking as the payment solar-power owners earn for delivering electricity to the German grid drops 5 percent each year.

Want to know more about the conference? Here’s a slideshow of the exhibit hall, and here are the stories I wrote from San Jose:
Three Huge Solar Trends
SunPower to Launch Large Panel
Solar Gets Home Financing
Google Goes Solar
Khosla Touts Centralized Solar
Schwarzenegger Likes Cleantech

Want to compare it to the Dresden conference? Take a SolarWorld factory tour, check out a Q-Cells party, or read my stories:
Solar: 3 Reasons for Optimism
Q&A: Creating as SolarWorld
ErSol Buys Into Thin Film
Blitzstrom Buys More Thin Film
Sun Cools New Refrigerator
Solar Energy for the Poor
Clean Energy Goes to the Movies

Five Googles?

At Solar Power 2006 in San Jose, Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said the first state to pass "real" clean policies will attract entrepreneurs and new businesses. "[They will bring the] biggest boom in job growth and the economy that we will see, because energy is far larger than the Internet," he said. "We will see five Googles in the first state to implement these." Who will become the first Poogle (power Google) or Cloogle (cleantech Google)?

jon stewart on net neutrality

Still funny.