This Reporter’s Favorites from Opening Day of Solar 2010 – Lovins, Hayes, Kazmerski + More!

Thursday, May 20th, Phoenix, Arizona – Everyone has their  celebrities and rock stars and the Opening Day of the  American Solar Energy Society’s conference included a cavalcade of luminaries including several of this reporter’s energy heroes – Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, Dennis Hayes founder of Earth Day and Larry Kazmerski of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.  The conference opened with a bang.  Ray Suarez of National Public Radio moderated a prescient conversation on the future of energy policy in the United States touching on topics ranging from the issue of the need for a national grid to the way China has taken the lead in the race to dominate the green technology market.  Amory weighed in with his usual aplomb and wit gift wrapping key statistics that left everyone applauding.  Dennis Hayes spoke up to add the voice of environmentalism to the conversation and to urge everyone to keep striving for our goals of a clean green world no matter how bleak the picture.  Even Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and Brad Albert of Arizona Public services shared details from their sphere of work that lent support for unfettered optimism when it comes to the future of solar energy.  The session was filmed and will be worth viewing once it is released for public consumption.

With the crowd pumped up and ready to go the conference split into separate session tracks.  As a volunteer I helped facilitate one morning session, one early afternoon session and then was free to flit from room to room during  the late afternoon session.  I enjoyed learning of the new virtual net-metering law just passed in the state of Massachusetts.  Joseph Wiedman, who presented on best practices for community renewables and who is a partner with Keyes & Fox LLP retained by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) offered to review the status of Missouri net-metering and community solar efforts and offer his advice.   The topic of the session was community solar and I hope to have more to say to the Show Me Solar membership regarding this exciting movement and how it dovetails with our own American Renewable Energy Initiative and our Energy Raiser events.  The rest of the day I sat in technical sessions mainly on concentrating solar power and policy sessions on training and certification of solar installers and instructors.  One example of a delightful encounter included a couple from Seattle who work for Boeing and know our friend Gary Reysa, presenting details of their own do-it-yourself project, an inflatable parabolic trough reflector that used 48 high efficiency solar cells and built upon a design on Gary’s website – http://www.builditsolar.com/  They hope to commercialize their solar unit and plan to share details with those interested.

After a busy day learning and sharing, conference attendees reconvened for a catered banquet complete with an entertaining flashback presentation to the founding year of the International Solar Energy Society which took place in Tucson and Phoenix in 1955.  With his trademarked brand of humor, Larry Kazmerski of the National  Renewable Energy Lab had the crowd laughing out loud for over an hour.  The media presentation was beautifully crafted and included the only known film coverage of the event discovered amongst one reel of 8 mm family home movies.  Numerous awards were presented by both the ASME as well as ASES for best papers, teaching and mentorship the Yellott Award which went to  Robert Beohm of UNVL and Jane Weissmann accepted the Charles Greeley Abbot Award in recognition of her tireless effort to make renewable energy the fundamental power source in the U.S. through building a foundation for sustainable solar policy, installer certification, workforce development and enlightened state regulations as well as her service to ASES and the IREC.  The banquet closed to the ASES solar rendition of the ‘70’s disco hit YMCA complete with Brad Collins, executive director of ASES adorned by Larry with a hard hat and Becky Campbell-Howe wearing a leather biker’s cap.  If you haven’t already, become a member of the solar village people and join in on the fun!