Solar Power Conference 2006: Call for Presentations due March 20

from www.SolarPowerConference.com

Conference Program; The Call for Presentations has been released. Abstracts are due by Monday, March 20, 2006.


We are seeking abstracts for presentations that fit into the session topics outlined below, as well as poster presenations on other topics. Please see the Call for Presentations for details.

MARKETS TRACK


M1: Incorporating Solar into a Utility Business Environment

A panel of senior utility executives will discuss the unique business environment and the factors that influence their decision making as they consider solar as a resource option. Discussion will include accounting frameworks, power purchase agreements, risk of ownership, and rate recovery.


M2: Utility Valuation of Solar

This session will be an interactive workshop for utility participants. A panel of solar experts from within utilities will kick off the session with a presentation of how their own utility assigns energy values to solar and quantifies solar’s critical load back-up and peak power reduction capabilities. Key assumptions and load correlation factors will be included in the discussion. Following the presentations, the panelists and audience members will work together in a facilitated environment to begin to formulate a utility-designed solar valuation methodology.



M3: Solar Communities - The Way of the Future?

This session will include a discussion of barriers to homebuilder acceptance of solar, as well as trends in the residential new construction market that could affect the solar industry. Signs indicate that the new housing market is slowing down – does this present an opportunity for solar as a “differentiating” feature in the new home market? Will we see increasing solar integration with production homebuilders? Specifically, how is the California Solar Initiative expected to affect the solar industry’s relationship with the homebuilding industry?



M4: Installations for Public and Corporate Buildings: Marketing Value, Energy Value, or a Little Bit of Both?

Many public entities such as municipal utilities, city governments, and schools were among the early adopters of solar technology and continue to play a large role in its deployment. And today large corporations like Home Depot, FedEx, Staples, and hundreds of other businesses around the U.S. are following suit and proudly displaying solar on their roofs. What drives this growing commercial solar market segment? What new innovative business models are available that make “going solar” a no-brainer for these public entities and large corporations?



M5: My Life as a Residential Solar Installer – Is it Getting Easier or Harder?

Solar installers have been through the wringer over the past few decades, but is life improving? Hear first hand from installers about infrastructure developments that make their jobs easier, and how declining rebates and price increases make their jobs harder. Is certification finally allowing them to differentiate themselves from their competitors? Are new permitting laws in certain areas letting them do their job faster? Has increased consumer awareness about the value of solar brought them more business and are customers easier to work with?



M6: Solar Thermal Market Developments
This session will identify growing solar thermal markets that have surfaced as a result of the nation’s increased appetite for renewable energy. Attention will be paid to the role solar thermal energy is playing in relation to Renewable Credit Trading, Green Pricing, Renewable Portfolio Standards and Public Benefits Funding.



M7: CSP Markets: From SEGS to Now

This session will cover the major market advances since the last concentrating solar power SEGS plant was built in 1991. The RPS market in the southwestern US and the feed-in market in Spain and Algeria will be discussed in detail.



M8: Financing Solar Installations

A major barrier to widespread solar deployment has always been the upfront capital cost to customers. But today, many options are emerging that allow customers to go solar without breaking the bank. What are the new and innovative third party financing models available for utilities and commercial customers? How are individual residential customers making solar affordable by rolling payments into their mortgage or taking out home equity loans? How is solar being paid for when production builders are putting solar on all the homes in a new community?


TECHNOLOGY TRACK



T1: Silicon Feedstock Manufacturing Developments – The Light at the End of the Tunnel?

With 95% of PV industry modules silicon based, the on-going silicon feedstock shortage threatens to stall the growth of a dynamic industry. This session will cover silicon feedstock manufacturing including advances in the Siemens process and the potential of the fluidized bed process.



T2: Innovations with Performance Monitoring

Real-time performance monitoring of installed solar energy systems offers several promises that have yet to be fully realized. As state policies move towards performance-based incentives, accurate monitoring of photovoltaic and solar hot water systems will facilitate revenue metering and minimize downtime, thereby helping to maximize energy generation and verify production of increasingly valuable Renewable Energy Credits. “Smart” systems can conduct self-diagnostic routines to identify and either correct faults or notify service personnel. With the integration of affordable two-way communication, networked solar energy systems can serve as mini-grids linked to priority loads, providing energy security and efficiency through load management. This session will address current and up-and-coming advances in these areas.



T3: Inverters – Reliable and Smart?

Mediator between power flows and demands of radically differing characteristics, the inverter has a heavy burden; to maximize solar system performance, ensure seamless interaction with the grid, and ensure the safety and security of users and neighbors alike for a decade or more. From its early years as ad-hoc adaptations of other industries' equipment, the PV inverter market has become a unique one. Recent attention to systems integration has brought about acceleration in development, and with it exciting new products.



T4: Solar’s Thin Film and Nanotech Revolution

The promise of thin film photovoltaics has always been evident. The promise of solar nanotechnology has recently received significant attention. But neither of these technologies has yet to become a major player in the global market. With global silicon constraints driving an intensive search for alternatives, has the day of thin film and/or nanotechnology finally come? Learn about advances with these technologies, the timeline for major commercialization, and potential impacts on system performance and price.



T5: Keeping the Power Flowing: Advancements in Energy Storage

For many years, electric systems worldwide have operated without significant storage. On the grid, the result is a need for a never-ending balancing act between supply and demand that can handcuff operators, impact system reliability, and induce irrational market behavior. In the solar arena, limited storage technologies have strengthened ties to the grid and limited energy surety and energy security applications. However, many forces in the economy - from the development of hybrid cars to an increased interest in grid stability - are advancing storage research in novel ways; this session will focus both on incremental improvements to existing technologies as well as entirely new paradigms outside the traditional chemical battery.



T6: Concentrating PV: Ready for Market?

Instead of bringing more solar panels into the light, why not bring more light into the solar panels? The simple premise of concentrating PV conceals considerable difficulties in systems design and manufacturing. New entrants into the space promise low power costs through high-tech optics and design; are these devices, sometimes exotic in appearance, the way to stretch existing PV into more power?



T7: Solar Heating and Cooling

Recent advances in seasonal-storage developments and cost reductions in solar collectors are making solar heating and cooling both economically and environmentally attractive. Although these projects are just beginning in North America, many solar seasonal-storage projects have been successfully demonstrated in Europe. In this session, learn about the concepts and technology advancements of solar heating and cooling, including district heating and cooling.



T8: CSP Then and Now: Differences Between SEGs and New Generation CSP

This session will cover the major technological advances in the 15 years since the last of the nine CSP SEGS plants went into operation in the Mojave Desert. Presentations will be made addressing troughs, central receivers, dish engine and concentrating PV technologies. Each will identify the most important advances and explain the impact each has had on the cost and performance of today’s CSP systems.


POLICY TRACK


P1: International Policy Models

At a variety of US policy conferences, we've heard a great deal about the German model and experience, but what about policy frameworks in other countries? What policies are in effect and operating in countries like Japan, China, Spain, Korea, Italy? Particular emphasis will be given to nations with solar markets that are, or are expected to become, significant components of the global solar market.


P2: Performance Based Incentives

Performance based incentives are an emerging policy incentive strategy in many states. Why are states moving to this model, and what are critical implementation considerations? What do experts think will be the impact, not only on market conditions but on hardware choice and verification, monitoring, quality of installation, etc. Conversely, what are the experiences that have come with real-world application of this model? Particular emphasis will be given to PBI effect on business practices and markets.


P3: Environmental Policy Integration

Beyond the "usual suspects" of interconnection, net metering, rebates, and RPS, what are the potential over-the-horizon policy drivers that could move the industry? Novel environmental policies on the drawing board - or even before that stage - could represent new and nontraditional policy opportunities for solar. This session seeks a diverse discussion of novel concepts including areas as diverse as water policy, international or regional carbon or other emissions strategies, and over-the-horizon schemes like individual emissions limitations, cradle-to-cradle resource policies, etc.


P4: Green Buildings and Green Communities - An Emerging Policy Framework

Increasingly, green building standards and "smart growth" frameworks are more than a matter of theoretical concern - in many places, they are the law. Speakers will focus on the new universe of policies surrounding green buildings development, and detail the opportunities they represent for solar. Discussion of diverse standards - including not only USGBC / LEED but also land use policies and other frameworks such as ENERGY STAR Homes, is desirable.


P5: Public Utility Commissioner Perspectives

You may be familiar with your state legislature or governor, but in too many states public service and public utilities commissioners are the most important policymakers we've never met. What are their major concerns? How do they view solar, distributed generation, and renewables in general?


P6: Emerging State Market Case Studies

The last several years have seen many new and novel state policies - some of which may represent major US markets in the near future. This session will offer an overview of the most substantial and innovative state policies that will come on line in the next several years.


P7: Federal Policy Overview

2006 saw the most substantial new federal incentives in more than a decade. From the perspective of developers, consumers, advocates, and state officials, what has been the effect of these credits? How could they be improved going forward, and what is the up-to-the-minute political status of solar on Capitol Hill? Further, what are the latest developments in research and development, interconnection, national credit trading, and other federal policies and incentives?


P8: Policies Below the State Level

Though they may not receive the press attention of national or state policies, groups at all levels from rural electric cooperatives to municipalities to county governments have enacted policies that work for the development of solar resources. This session will examine high-impact policies under implementation or development from visionary municipalities, electric co-ops and community-level groups such as homeowners associations.