November 17, 2010,North Haven, CT—As I walked booth by booth at Solar Power International (SPI) 2010, I was blown away with several observations including the growth of the show, the new product ideas that hit the show each year and the diversity of the attendees and exhibitors. My 1st show was in 2007 in Long Beach CA. As I recall, it was in one large really crowded room, and everyone seemed like they knew each other. There were 210 exhibitors and 5000-6000 attendees. This year’s show had 1100+ exhibitors and 27,000+ attendees. Since 2007, I have attended every SPI conference. I enjoy cruising through the show, talking to exhibitors,
examining new products and technologies.
In my opinion, some of these will make it and some will not. Some of the promising products from yesteryear don’t even exist today. Big news in 2007 was Fat Spaniel launching a solar monitoring system. Akeena Solar who in 2008 was supposed to be the big player to dominate the installation business, in 2010, has laid off their installers and is out of the installation business. Instead their focus is concentrated on distributing their product, which now sells under the name of Westinghouse Solar and is sold in Home Depot stores. I can also remember just a few years ago, the Enphase booth consisted of one guy in a small booth. This year Enphase had a huge booth with 25-35 representatives bearing Enphase apparel.
At this year’s show it seemed to me that there was a big shift in the exhibitors and attendees. In prior years it seemed much more casual, with jeans, tie dyed tees shirts and long hair were not unusual. This year two things struck me.
1) How ” corporate” this industry is becoming with large contingents of sales people in Brooks Brother suits and
2) The huge amount of foreign companies represented as both attendees and exhibitors.
Many Countries were represented with massive booths including Mexico, Spain, Germany, Israel, and Australia to mention a few. I also saw a big increase in representation from U.S. States like North Carolina, New Mexico, Nebraska, Georgia, Missouri and more…
While wandering the show, I observed many new ideas, technologies and best practices to install solar more efficiently. There had to be 100 companies that now offer racking, tracking and ground and pole mount systems. These ideas are what makes the solar industry so great. I met a German couple that was displaying a roof tracking system that slides out of your attic (side of the house) in the morning and tracks the sun all day and goes to bed in your attic at night. Unfortunately, neither the inventor or his wife spoke very much English so it was difficult get my questions answered about their invention.
While there were many interesting evolving products, I have a personal interest in evaluating systems that help installers do their job more efficiently. Some of the products worth mentioning are Lumus who has a frameless panel that integrates the panel, racking and wiring. Lumos is currently manufactured in Shanghai but has plans to move manufacturing to the San Diego area in 2011. Zep Solar has a integrated racking systems that currently works only with Canadian Solar 230 panels. We do sell the Zep product and have plans to add the Lumos line soon. The bottom line is, I believe, that if the solar industry is going to thrive, we have to get more efficient at how we do things. The quest for $4-$5 solar installations will only happen if hardware gets more efficient, components get cheaper and installers get more efficient at installing systems. It is our objective to assist you in that endeavor.
About Company :
At Solar Wholesale Products we have a staff committed to assisting you with your solar energy product needs. We have extensive solar distribution experience and can assist you in designing a solar system. Our products include the following grid tie solar systems components: solar panels,inverters, solar electrical wire and connectors, racking systems and a balance of system components needed to install a grid tie solar system.
Contact US :
Solar Wholesale Products
Contact Person : Bob McNamara
Mail- [email protected]
Address – 605 Washington Ave,North Haven, CT 06473
Phone- 877-392-8978
