The Solar PV Philly Show Opened to the Public: What $20 million will get you AND Let your IMAGINATION run wild.

By Betsy Teusch and Jacques Sapriel

Since Solar PV Philadelphia is a trade show, much of the exhibitors supply solar manufactures and so on, up the chain.  But there are a lot of distributers and installers, and they’re making the case given programs like Sunshine PA, that solar is becoming cost effective.  And when Pennsylvania deregulates electricity prices in 2011, payback will be a helluva lot quicker….

More than 135 companies are represented in the expo hall. Since manufacturing solar cells is a precise scientific based process, a lot of  companies that are represented manufacture some of the complex machinery and measurement tools necessary to set up and run a solar cell fabrication.  This is how I found out, while chatting with the US Representative of OTB Solar from Eindhoven – Netherlands, that $20 million is the approximate cost of a brand new turnkey solar cell manufacturing line. If that sounds like a lot of money, think that a basic microchip fab similar to what Intel runs around the world cost about $2 billion a pop.  Same kind of materials, similar manufacturing process, differences in complexity and need for high accuracy account for some of the difference.

Here are some of the interesting innovations I ran into:
- Suntech sells Solar Roof Tiles of different colors, that are approved for the US Market, that blend with existing roof tiles.

- Gadore Center USA – German-American Dialog on Renewable Energy (GADORE) is a new  soft landing center that is opening downtown Philadelphia for small and medium-sized German, Swiss and Austrian companies in the renewable Energy sector that want to enter the US Market.

- Konarka Technologies is a US start up company that manufactures flexible PV solar cells. Named after a 13th century Indu temple that is one of the gems of worldwide religious architecture, this company was founded by a team of scientists from UMASS Lowell that includes the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Why are flexible Photovoltaic Solar cells exciting?

Because flexible solar cells are very light weight, they can be attached to all kinds of surfaces and generate portable electricity.
JUST IMAGINE WHAT TRUE FREEDOM FROM THE GRID FEELS LIKE… Wherever you are, you have instant power.

Here is a picture of the two representatives from Konarka Technologies showing off a roll-away solar cell that could power your laptop anywhere you are.

An Example of Konarka Technologies flexible Solar Cells

Let your imagination run free…
Imagine that while carrying your bag around, your cell phone would recharge. That already exist.
Imagine an umbrella that would recharge your laptop.
Imagine your favorite Summer  Sunday hat with a built-in fan runing on a flexible solar cell layered elegantly on the hat.
Imagine sweters or jackets with built-in solar power supply.
Imagine…. most countries around the world do not have on demand 24h electricity.  Flexible solar cells is to the old electrical grid what cell phones are to land lines.  Flexible cells have the potential to change the life of billions of people in developing countries who do not have access to an electrical grid.

MSEIA has organized Solar Tours on Thursday, June 11 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. departing from and returning to the Pennsylvania Convention Center that will allow solar professionals and the public to see small- and large-scale solar installations in operation in urban and suburban settings in greater Philadelphia. All tours cost $40. Information is available at
http://www.mseia.net/SolarTours.html.