Intersolar North America, the most attended industry exhibition and conference in North America for solar professionals to exchange information and develop business opportunities in the U.S. solar market, will feature a variety of new products that boost system efficiency and lower costs on its 2013 exhibition floor of the Moscone Center in San Francisco from July 9 to 11, 2013. This year marks Intersolar North America’s sixth year in California, the United States’ largest solar market.
Intersolar North America will offer six main exhibition segments: PV Cells, Modules and Systems; Balance of Systems (BOS); Energy Storage; Components, Mounting and Tracking Systems; PV Manufacturing Equipment and Materials; and Solar Heating and Cooling Technologies. The exhibition is organized in conjunction with the global association SEMI, co-organizer of Intersolar North America and organizer of the co-located SEMICON West. Since its founding in 2008, net square footage of floor space booked by exhibitors has quadrupled.
The BOS market segment has been one of Intersolar’s fastest growing exhibition segments, and this year the exhibition space has already grown by more than 25 percent. As global solar markets continue to grow, balance of system costs offer the largest opportunity to continue to drive down the cost of solar, since they represent as much as half the cost of a solar system. Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy launched the SunShot initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of solar by 75 percent by 2020, and has heavily emphasized BOS components and solar system hardware as a primary point of cost reduction. Tigo Energy, winner of two DOE SunShot incubator awards, will exhibit at this year’s show, along with SolarTech, a non-profit industry consortium to working to remove non-hardware, process-related cost barriers to the acceleration of U.S. solar markets.
In 2012, more than 50 exhibitors showcased their innovations in this specific segment, and many will return this year, including ABB Inc., Advanced Energy Industries Inc., Bonfiglioli Riduttori SpA, Schneider Electric, SMA Americas LLC, SolarEdge Technologies Inc., SolarBridge Technologies, Solectria Renewables, Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Systems Corp. (TMEIC). Several first-time exhibitors will be on hand as well, including Sputnik Engineering/SolarMax and Power-One Inc.
"This will be AE's sixth year exhibiting at Intersolar and our 28th year participating in the co-organized SEMICON West, and each year reaffirms that it is among the most important events for connecting with the PV industry’s leading decision makers in California, North America’s largest regional market,” said Mike Dooley, VP of marketing at Advanced Energy Solar Energy. This year, the company will exhibit two new inverters, a utility-scale and three-phase string. “These new inverters are designed to address the BoS and LCOE needs of commercial and large-scale project developers, EPC companies, owners, and financiers. If past years are any indication, we expect a lot of buzz and big crowds at Intersolar.”
Additionally, novel racking and mounting systems promise to streamline the installation process and boost solar installation reliability, further decreasing the cost of solar. The “Components, Mounting & Tracking Systems” exhibition segment will also expand for this year’s show, and has already seen a 12 percent increase in the square footage of floor space booked. Schletter Inc., an internationally recognized manufacturer of solar mounting systems, will display its newest products for rooftop and ground-mounted systems, along with the latest from Eaton, Mounting Systems, Inc., Multi-Contact USA, Quick Mount PV, Shoals Technology Group, SnapNRack, Solarcube LLC and Unirac Inc., among others, including first-time exhibitor QBotix, Inc.
Solar Cell and Module Manufacturers Continue to Boost Efficiency, Lower Costs
New advances in solar cell and modules, including both silicon-based and thin film technologies, have attracted the attention of industry observers. The most dramatic innovations seek to address the multi-stage, highly energy intensive process of producing silicon wafers, and a number of companies are pursuing technologies that promise less waste and material use, and often lower energy use as well. Others are focused on boosting crystalline silicon efficiency, which can translate into higher energy production at the cell level. Visitors can see the newest products from SolarWorld, Talesun, Canadian Solar, CentroSolar America, Jinko Solar, Mitsubishi Electric and Yingli Green Energy Americas at this year’s exhibition.
A full list of Intersolar North America exhibitors is available online. Additionally, conference programs at the InterContinental Hotel will cover the latest technology advancements in more than 50 sessions and practical workshops from July 8 to 11. The conference program is available online.
The combination of these technologies is key to improving solar efficiencies and reducing costs, and will make solar a practical choice for mainstream power generation. For more than two decades, Intersolar has invested in industry trade groups and non-profits worldwide. In the United States, Intersolar counts the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA), SolarTech and Northern California Solar Energy Association (NorCal Solar), a chapter of the American Solar Energy Society among its partners. Intersolar works closely with these partners, as well as other organizations at the local, state and federal levels to expand the market for solar across the country.
