Day one of Intersolar kicked off for me with a press conference with SolarWorld.  The company announced that it was donating 100kW to the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF).  Bob Freling, executive director of the organization graciously accepted the donation and explained that it would be used to power at least 5 health care centers in Haiti.

In addition, SolarWorld announced its new spokesperson.  Former oil tycoon Larry Hagman (at least he played one on TV) who used to play “JR” on the TV show Dallas is now actively promoting the company, which has a new commercial and a print ad featuring the star.  Hagman not only supports the company as a spokesperson, but he also walks the talk. He has a 100+ kW system on his residence in California that is reportedly the largest residential system in the country. 

Hagman said that now is the time for Americans to go solar because it’s clean, has no moving parts and is totally reliable.  He said that he turned to solar after the enormous power outage that happened back in 2003.  Originating in Ohio, the outage caused half of the eastern seaboard to lose power for as many as 3 days.  Hagman went solar after that event, reducing his utility bill from more than $37,000 a year to $13.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Hagman and Freling to talk about their work in solar.  The video is below.

I also sat down with Gal Moyal founder of solar thermal company Free Hot Water.  Moyal discussed certification of solar panels and why it’s important to the industry.  Moyal also said that he thinks it’s likely that legislation or some kind of incentive structure will soon require a certain percentage of solar thermal components be “made in the USA.”  FreeHotWater is currently looking to set up a manufacturing plant for its parts in Sacramento, California.

As usual at renewable energy industry events, the floor is buzzing with activity and excitement.  With 2 more days to go and a lot more interviews to conduct and publish, stay tuned to RenewableEnergyWorld.com for updates.

 

Update:  the Solar Electric Light Fund just released a song by Steel Pulse to raise money for its work in Haiti.  Check it out at this link.