The Intersolar Show – Diversity in the Extreme

A few hours ago, I met Dr. Kurt Chistienson, whose company Optomec “paints” the thin silver “fingers” onto PV cells – using proprietary technology that makes them as thin as 30 microns – (a considerable advantage over his competitors’ 40 microns as these conductive circuits cast unwanted shadows on the silicon).  A few minutes later, I ran into a fellow whose group had recently drilled 13,000 holes (for a large solar array) in 20 days.

Within a few yards of one another, this year’s visitors to the Intersolar show found everything from the incredible high-tech machine tools that control physical processes to within 70 nanometers, to eight-foot-long “ground screws” that form the foundation for solar farms. Then, add in all the folks with products and services that complement the physical industry: financiers, print and electronic media, and representatives of various states and regions, hoping to attract projects – and thus jobs.

Another element of diversity that one couldn’t help notice is the global nature of the solar industry. As I’ve been lamenting recently, it’s clear that the US lags behind many other countries in renewable energy, and this phenomenon became that much more painfully obvious at the show. There were plenty of Chinese manufacturers, but entire sections of each of the three floors were exclusively German – with their almost religious devotion to the subject and their perennial stranglehold on state-of-the art engineering.

The omnipresence of the Germans was not entirely a bad thing, however. Of course, anyone with any sense deeply respects what they’ve done in the industry. But even those lacking that sense had to be impressed with the strong coffee they served in the mornings, and the cold beer (Becks and Spaten — what’s not to like there?) in the evenings.

Yet, again, the whole experience, exhilarating as it may have been, was a painful reminder that the US has been caught unawares in the migration to renewables. When I wasn’t running 100 miles per hour myself, I stood and watched thousands of others Americans: job seekers, entrepreneurs, investors — people from all walks of life — scrambling — like so many salmon swimming against the current.