NEXT100

Kite Power: From Toys to Terawatts

Jonathan Marshall — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:03:53 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

In the short list of the world's best jobs, designing kites to produce renewable energy has to be right up there--the perfect combination of excitement, imagination and do-goodism.

So it was an enviable group of inventors, entrepreneurs and university researchers who gathered last week at Chico State University and Oroville from at least six countries for the world's first conference on high-altitude wind energy.

Their common focus was on finding ways to tap the vast energy potential of winds high in the atmosphere, including the mighty jet stream. And their common question, in the words of one speaker, was "how do we put together the industry?"

Kite power, as some call it, is one of those far-out but potentially game-changing sources of renewable energy. But in the judgment of Scientific American, "By the standards of revolutionary technologies, . . . high-altitude wind looks relatively straightforward and benign."

In a major study published in 2005, Cristina Archer (organizer of the Chico State conference) and her Stanford University thesis adviser, engineering professor Mark Jacobson, calculated that the amount of wind energy available just 80 meters above the earth's surface is 35 times the world's total power consumption.

"It's free energy, continuously guaranteed aslong as the Earth is what it is," Archer says.

At about six miles up, the jet stream produces even more energy--as much as 100 times the world's current consumption. But it will take more than a little engineering wizardry to tap.

Accordingly, a lot of playful wizards have put on their serious thinking caps.

Google-financed Makani Power, with an amazing engineering and creative team based in Alameda, is pursuing large kite designs that could produce megawatts of power. "This is the dawn of the new age of kites," said former CEO Saul Griffith.

The Italian company Kite Gen aims to deploy giant kites at an altitude of about 3,000 feet to exploit the faster wind speeds available at higher altitudes. As winds carry them aloft, the kites' unspooling tethers spin an alternator, generating power. Each kite may be able to produce about 3 megawatts of power.

But where would a developer put these kites to avoid bringing down an unwary 747? In otherwise off-limits airspace.

"To help visualizing the existing unexploited potential," the company notes, "just consider that the flight-prohibited area over a nuclear power plant can easily get to contain 1 GW of wind power, equal to the power of the plant itself."

An even more ambitious concept under development at Delft University in the Netherlands is an enormous loop of kits that turns like a ferris wheel in the sky. It could rise up to 30,000 feet and generate 100 MW of power.

In addition to all the obvious engineering challenges of operating generators so high in the sky, kite power has at least one other drawback: its energy source isn't completely reliable. Apparently even high-altitude winds die out about five percent of the time, something of a nuisance if you are running a hospital, operating a semiconductor fabrication line or watching the Superbowl.

"While there is enough power in these high altitude winds to power all of modern civilization, at any specific location there are still times when the winds do not blow," said Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford. "This means that you either need back-up power, massive amounts of energy storage, or a continental or even global scale electricity grid to assure power availability. So, while high-altitude wind may ultimately prove to be a major energy source, it requires substantial infrastructure."

There's a Great Future in Plastics

Jonathan Marshall — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:28:11 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

Benjamin, the young man played by Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, should have listened to the advice he got from Mr. McGuire: "There's a great future in plastics."

If he had, young Benjamin might have found a way to perfect production of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), a light and superbly strong but expensive composite material that enables a growing share of today's clean technology. In many applications it can replace heavier metal parts and reduce energy consumption.

Consumers already appreciate CFRP in niche products like high-end bicycle frames, tennis raquets, fishing rods and golf clubs. Formula One race car enthusiasts know that CFRP makes the lightest crash-resistant auto bodies, offering the highest performance where cost is no object.

The good news is that CFRP is now penetrating more markets as manufacturers find ways to automate its production.

Mainstream car buyers may soon be able to enjoy race car quality thanks to a new joint venture of BMW and SGL Group to mass produce carbon fiber auto bodies at a competitive price. BMW plans to make them integral to its lightweight hybrid Megacity vehicle.

Robert Koehler, CEO of the SGL Group, stated: "This joint venture with the BMW Group is a milestone for the use of carbon fibres on an industrial scale in the automobile industry. . . . This . . . shows that carbon fibre technology is becoming increasingly important in the materials substitution process to lighter material. This material will help to reduce CO2 emissions and save our natural resources."

The Aptera hypercar, nearing commercial production, will also use a composite body to lower weight and achieve the equivalent of more than 200 miles per gallon, while allowing occupants to survive high-speed crashes.

In a completely unrelated application, General Electric reportedly plans to introduce a radical wind turbine blade design based on carbon fiber composites. The key innovation is a new process that will permit mass production at affordable prices, in place of traditional labor-intensive methods.

The new carbon-fiber blades will weigh as much as one-third less than traditional blades, reducing installation costs and wear on gears and drive shafts. GE hopes to bring the technology to market by 2012, according to the manager of GE Global Research, interviewed in BusinessGreen.com.

The Green Seen

Leonard Anderson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:29:19 -0800

By: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:

Smart grids. Smart meters. Now come smart thermostats. Silicon Valley startup EcoFactor will collect weather data to fine tune home air conditioning and heating systems to keep the occupants comfortable and energy efficient. The company has a three-year deal with Texas utility Oncor to test the program. EcoFactor plans to market the product on a subscription basis offered by utilities and companies selling energy management services.

Auto executives told the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit this week that raising the gas tax will put more American drivers behind the wheel of fuel-efficient cars. Gradually raising gas taxes to where fuel costs at least $4 to $5 a gallon would do more to stimulate demand for next-generation cars like the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid than other policy initiatives like raising national fuel efficiency standards, auto execs said. Steep gas prices in the current fragile economy, however, would likely be extremely unpopular.

BusinessWeek has published a slide show of the "Fifty Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years," with the Toyota Prius showing up on the list along with some other good lookers like Ferrari Enzo and the Chevy El Camino, a combo car and truck that earns "one of the greatest cars of all time" honors from The Big Money.com. Among the ugliest: Pontiac Aztek, the Yugo and Cadillac Cimarron.

Climate Changes

Kory Raftery — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:00:00 -0800

By: Kory Raftery

Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it supports most of the principles outlined in a bipartisan climate change bill sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D., Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). In a letter sent to senators in the Environment and Public Works Committee earlier this week, the Chamber stated it is open to considering a federal cap on emissions. Surprised by the letter, committee chair Senator Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) called the Chamber's position "a game-changer," especially after big companies such as PG&E Corp (PCG), Exelon Corp. (EXC), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Levi Strauss & Co. recently resigned from the organization citing a fundamental disagreement with the Chamber's position on global warming.

An article detailing a new study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports glaciers atop the African peak Mount Kilimanjaro are rapidly shrinking and could disappear within the next 20 years. The study suggests global warming is the culprit, as scientists used historic aerial photos, satellite data and ice cores to determine the melting has taken place during recent years.

Some of the nation's top penny-pinchers are starting to see global warming as a risk to the health of the economy, according to a New York University survey that collected data from 144 economists. About 75 percent of the economists support greenhouse gas controls. And more than 90 percent support a tax on emissions or a "cap and trade system." To read the entire study, click here.

Depending on Energy Efficiency

Katie Romans — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:45:29 -0800

By: Katie Romans

Since 1976, when PG&E became one of the first utilities in the country to offer energy efficiency programs, it has helped save more than 155 million megawatt-hours of electricity and 155 million tons of carbon pollution. But, to make the further savings needed to help curb global warming, our energy efficiency experts have to go the extra mile.

For these efforts, PG&E was recently recognized by Edison Electric Institute (EEI) for its outstanding service in providing energy efficiency programs to national chains -- an area that the chains believe to be critical to their operations.

In a press release, EEI President Thomas R. Kuhn said, "The winning utilities and individuals understand that the health of their business is dependent upon the health of their customer's business. With today's volatile energy prices and uncertain economic conditions, the winners know that they must continually work to make their customers more energy efficient, more productive, and ultimately, more profitable."

PG&E's strategic roadmap of energy efficiency over the next three years, the 2010-2012 energy efficiency portfolio, is specifically designed around customer segments and individual customer needs. PG&E will outline how it plans to meet the aggressive savings goals set forth in the portfolio in a compliance advice letter to be filed with the California Public Utilities Commission in December. Here's a sneak preview:

Business and Consumer Electronics: Electronics make up eight percent of PG&E's total electric load, and that number is growing. By contracting directly with major manufacturers and retailers, PG&E is today delivering mid-/upstream incentives for energy-efficient consumer electronics.

LED Streetlights: LED streetlights are still expensive, but with the combined assistance of grants from the federal stimulus and incentives provided from PG&E, more cities are able to afford them. Most recently, the Town of Danville converted its streetlights to LEDs, realizing the benefits of a longer life span, reduced maintenance costs/energy use and better color rendition.

Behavior Change: Finally, some experts believe there are great energy savings opportunities to be mined through behavior change. In fact, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates an energy savings opportunity of 20-30 percent through behavior change. The challenges of implementing behavior change are twofold: ensuring persistence in realizing that energy savings and mitigating the adverse effects that can come with time differentiated rates and behaviors.

As long as the success of PG&E and our business customers depend upon the company's success in delivering energy efficiency programs, we will continue to identify unique and growing opoprtunities for energy savings.

Smart Grid: The View from PG&E

Jonathan Marshall — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:54 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

They say all politics are local. So are many of the issues driving PG&E to invest in smarter grids, according to PG&E Senior Director Andrew Tang, who delivered a keynote address at today's GreenTechMedia conference on "The Networked Grid."

One of the major drivers behind PG&E's smart grid program is systemic: the need to manage and balance the large fluctuations in output from increasing amounts of solar and wind energy, as PG&E increases its reliance on renewable power.

But at least two other issues, which get much less attention, are intensely local.

One is the rapid but uneven rise in rooftop solar installations connected to PG&E's grid. Today PG&E has about 300 megawatts of customer solar capacity in its service area--almost 40 percent of the nation's total--and that figure is expected to hit about 1,000 MW by 2014.

But the distribution of customer solar installations within PG&E's network is "very lumpy and concentrated," Tang said. San Francisco has 1,520 connected to PG&E's grid; San Jose has 1,430 and Fresno has about 1,250. The median city in PG&E's service area has only 12.

Where rooftop solar is concentrated, grid management issues can arise. The passage of clouds overhead can lead to rapid changes in power output and voltage fluctuations. PG&E will need smart sensing devices to monitor such changes so they can be corrected--with flexible conventional generation, energy storage devices or demand response programs. The latter two are prime smart grid applications.

Another emerging issue is charging of electric vehicles. Tang said PG&E's service area could easily host half a million such vehicles by 2020.

An electric car that charges in four hours at 240 volts represents the same load as a full-sized house in San Ramon--or nearly three homes in San Francisco, where average residential power demand is much lower.

If large numbers of EV customers decide to plug in their cars when they get home from work, the result could be an unwelcome spike in system load in the late afternoon, requiring expensive new generation and distribution facilities.

That won't be a problem for some time in many parts of PG&E's service area. But in green-minded cities like Berkeley, where 18 percent of new vehicle registrations are already hybrids, electric vehicles could soon put a big strain on the local electric grid.

The answer, Tang said, will be a combination of smart meters and "smart charging" capabilities to deliver power to thirsty batteries only at night when other loads taper off.

"People have talked about home automation for two decades," Tang said. "We think some aspects of home automation are finally becoming feasible at reasonable price points. [PG&E's] role needs to be the enabler. Our SmartMeter(tm) has a home area network chip so you can know how much energy you are using right now and what the energy is costing you.

"We are also working on smart charging for EVs," he continued. "If we give people the technology to plug their car into the wall, knowing it will be charged by morning, it will be customer friendly." The key, he emphasized, will be educating customers about the benefits they soon will be able to enjoy from these smart grid programs.

Smart Grid: The View from North America

Jonathan Marshall — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:10:01 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

With billions of dollars now flowing into the "smart grid" market--from utilities, venture capitalist and now the Department of Energy--it's no wonder more than 400 people showed up today for a conference at PG&E on "The Networked Grid."

Organized by GreenTechMedia, noted for its reporting and market research on clean technology, the conference is covering current and planned utility deployments of smart grid technology, communications infrastructure, home area networks and the challenges of integrating renewable and distributed energy on a mass scale.

Rick Thompson, co-founder and COO of GreenTechMedia, kicked off the conference with preliminary findings of a new survey of North American utilities, which confirm the high level of ferment in the smart grid market.

Over half of utilities surveyed are now in the preliminary stages of planning or running pilots for smart grid applications; about half expect to deploy smart meters to a majority of their customers in the next three years; half plan to run pilot tests of charging electric vehicles over the next couple of years; and half plan to deploy utility-scale energy storage on their grids within five years.

The biggest benefit they see from smart grid is reduction in peak demand, which will limit the need for new power generation investments. Other leading benefits include energy efficiency (good for the environment and the pocketbook) and reduced outages.

The biggest challenges they see are regulatory barriers and the lack of technology standards, which are needed to ensure that equipment from various manufacturers will work together on the same grid.

Another major challenge is ensuring the security of utility communications networks that relay customer data or control grid operations. "We need intelligent security," said Erfan Ibrahim, a senior technologist at the Electric Power Research Institute. "Just building a big wall won't keep (intruders) out."

GreenTechMedia's Thompson said the single biggest concern of utilities is the challenge of managing, storing, protecting and effectively using the vast amount of data that smart grids will generate. Utilities, including PG&E, may need to dedicate entire datacenters just to andling and processing the hourly meter reads from smart meters, which replace the monthly reads of old.

Andrew Campbell, advisor to CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong, noted that the regulatory body adopted a policy in 2003 that all electric customers should have smart meters. The commission's goal--well on its way to implementation--was to permit the introduction of time-varying pricing to induce customers to shift demand away from peak periods.

But as PG&E's Kevin Dasso noted, the many new capabilities of smart meters will require changing the traditional relationship between utilities and their customers. "We need to work with customers to help them take advantage of the meters' capabilities. . . . We have to make sure we are communicating with our customers . . . to help them make the transition to what smart grid can offer them."

Rain Water Harvesting

Jana Morris — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:59:46 -0800

By: Jana Morris

When we think of "harvest" we think of the fall season, the holidays, farmers gathering vegetables and men and women in rows of grape vines picking fruit. What about rain water harvesting?

"Capturing rain water off of roof tops during winter months to supply landscape irrigation during the summer months when water is most scarce is just one use," says J.M. Baeli, General Manager of Baelin Inc., a Sonoma-based family business that focuses on green renovations of homes and lands.

Water can be collected in a number of ways from a simple decorative rain chain to a more complex underground cistern. If filtered and treated correctly the water can be used for more than just irrigation.

Baeli says, "Harvesting the water from seasonal rains has its rewards, it lower water bills, reduces energy use due to embedded energy in pumping water, and conserves our highly valuable potable water supply."

In the last few years many parts of the state have been faced with significantly lower rain fall totals during the wet weather months. If more of us harvested the drops that do fall, maybe water shortages will be a thing of the past?

Climate Changes

Kory Raftery — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:30:00 -0800

By: Kory Raftery

Several Stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

It seems there is one thing politicians can agree on - it is likely that the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Denmark will not produce a treaty. Meantime, the BBC reported British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that European leaders had come to an agreement on what to offer other countries at December's UN conference in Copenhagen. Skeptics of the agreement argue European leaders are struggling over how much money to offer developing nations to fight the effects of global warming.

While global warming is set to take center stage in Copenhagen, an article recently published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests you don't have to wait on global leaders to make an impact in the fight against climate change. The article conveys that simple changes such as upgrading heating and cooling technology, using more efficient vehicles and drying your laundry on a line for the next ten years could help the U.S. cut its carbon footprint by around 7.4 percent - which equates to 123 million metric tons of carbon and is more than the annual emissions produced by France.

According to a recent Reuters article, only five states have published a strategic climate change plan that includes a public health response. The five states with public health response plans included in their larger climate change plans are California, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington. 28 states have published strategic climate change plans that do not include a public health response. 17 states and the District of Columbia have not published a strategic climate change plan. To read the full report, click here.

Many global warming skeptics say the Earth has actually cooled off in the past few years. New studies commissioned by Associated Press suggest that is not true. Scientists agree temperatures were hotter in 2005 than they were in 2008 - but a closer look at the numbers over the last ten years shows that temperatures have dipped, soared, fallen again and are now rising once more. Statisticians say that when sizing up climate change, it's important to look at moving averages of about 10 years. "To talk about global cooling at the end of the hottest decade the planet has experienced in many thousands of years is ridiculous," said Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford.

Smashing Pumpkins?

Jana Morris — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:34:58 -0800

By: Jana Morris

After you've made your pumpkin pies, soups, breads and roasted seeds, and after you've lit your carved pumpkin for Halloween, what do you do with it once the holiday is over? Try composting it! To avoid adding waste to your local landfill, smash the pumpkin after your celebration and put it in the garden.

Make sure the insides are removed
Find a spot in the yard and place a compost bin or dig a small hole to bury
Smash the pumpkin
Add leaves or yard waste to the desired location
Add smashed pumpkin
Add more yard waste if desired and let nature do its work

A great site we found on pumpkin composting is earth911.com.

The Green Seen

Leonard Anderson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0800

By: Leonard Anderson

Several items relating to the business and technology of clean energy and the environment caught our attention this week:

Here are some last-minute tips for a green, affordable Halloween Saturday night, courtesy of Treehugger: Ignore the Halloween superstores and recycle stuff around your home -- clothes, cardboard, aluminum foil, boxes and paint -- to craft nifty costumes like skunks, spiders, fish, face masks and more. Select a walking neighborhood for trick or treat and carry a reusable paper bag or a pillow case for your treats and a second bag for litter. After the big night, host a costume swap party or donate costumes to a children's hospital for dress-up days. Happy Halloween!

Jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co. wants you to treat their clothes with the environment in mind. Working with Goodwill stores, Levi Strauss will sew tags into all of its clothing instructing buyers to donate the items when they're no longer needed, Green Inc. notes. The tags will also encourage customers to wash their clothes in cold water and dry them on a clothesline when possible to save energy. Clothing makes up a significant portion of the 23.8 billion pounds of textiles in U.S. landfills each year.

More on clotheslines: There is no longer a U.S. manufacturer of wooden clothespins; we import them from China and sell them as novelty products. Eighty percent of U.S. households have a tumble dryer and millions more go to the laundromat. Dryers account for 3 percent of household power, not including laundromats, hospitals, colleges and so on. The Project Laundry List organization figures we could save 10 percent on energy costs if we did the laundry the old green way -- cold water, line dry, no bleaching or ironing. Maybe Project Laundry List can team up with Levi Strauss and Goodwill.

Geothermal Gets Government Grants

Jonathan Marshall — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:58:41 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

The geothermal power industry, which has suffered several well-publicized setbacks in recent months, today got a huge financial and morale boost in the form of up to $338 million in Recovery Act grants from the Department of Energy to support research, exploration and development of new production fields.

The matching grants will help fund 123 projects in 39 states. As much as $133 million will go to support the promising new field of "enhanced geothermal systems" (EGS), which involves drilling deep into hot rocks to develop power resources in locations that were never previously considered candidates for geothermal energy.

If EGS proves economically feasible, relatively clean, renewable geothermal energy could go from a niche resource to a major contributor to U.S. power needs. Total geothermal capacity in the United States today is about 3,100 megawatts, of which 2,600 MW are in California. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the nation's geothermal resources could in theory support 500,000 megawatts of generation, almost half of all electricity consumed in the United States.

And a report produced in 2006 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that with a few hundred million dollars in R&D to jumpstart the industry--on the order of what DOE is now providing--EGS could feasibly produce 100,000 MW of power by 2050, enough for about 85 million homes.

"Geothermal energy from EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that can provide base-load electric power and heat at a level that can have a major impact on the United States while incurring minimal environmental impacts," according to the MIT study. "Further, EGS provides a secure source of power for the long term that would help protect America against economic instabilities resulting from fuel price fluctuations or supply disruptions."

Four of the new DOE grants are for EGS projects at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a prime center of research on clean energy. They will help engineers better understand how hot fluids move through fractured rock deep underground.

One study will examine the potential for using carbon dioxide to absorb heat from underground rocks for use in electricity generation, an idea that's getting a lot of attention of late.

Last month, two companies--Enhanced Oil Resources Inc. and GreenFire Energy--announced a joint venture to evaluate the potential for CO2-based geothermal power in parts of Arizona and New Mexico. They hope to start building a 2 MW demonstration plant next year. If it works, one could imagine capturing CO2 from coal plants, injecting it underground and producing geothermal energy from the hot fluid.

Hybrid Cars for $2,700

Jonathan Marshall — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:48:18 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

Last week we looked at the remarkable history of electric cars, which enjoyed a U.S. market share of nearly 40 percent a century ago.

But let's not forget the brief but glorious history of hybrid vehicles. AutoblogGreen reminds us that the sleek Woods Dual Power Coupe--1916 Model 44 shown here--was powered by both an electric motor and a 4-cylinder internal combustion engine.

According to Wikipedia, this hybrid model was produced in Chicago by Woods Motor Vehicle Company from 1915 to 1918 and reached a top speed of 35 mph.

They cost about $2,700 each--without tax breaks or subsidies. That's about $55,000 today.

Go Solar!

Jonathan Marshall — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:45:03 -0800

By: Jonathan Marshall

Nearly 34,000 PG&E customers had grid-connected solar power installations by the end of September--64 percent of the total for California's investor-owned utilities (IOUs), according to the latest progress report from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Together, the three IOUs have now passed 50,000 customer solar installations and 500 megawatts of customer solar capacity, both impressive milestones. About half that capacity has been installed since 2007, when the utilities began offering special incentives under the California Solar Initiative.

The initiative, endorsed by the state legislature and overseen by the CPUC, aims to support creation of a strong solar market in California and to drive prices lower as the market grows and matures. Over the past five quarters, the report notes, the average cost per watt of installed photovoltaic systems has dropped between 9 and 13 percent, depending on size.

The number of new residential applications hit a record high of 2,123 in August--1,602 at PG&E alone--as customers sought to get their applications in before utility incentives were scheduled to decline.

The promotion of so much new clean power--and the jobs that come with it--speaks well of the state's program, the utilities that administer it and especially of the social consciousness of Californians who are doing their part for the environment.

But like many good things, it comes with a price. Rooftop solar is one of the most expensive sources of power. To date, California's IOUs have paid out $605 million in incentives for customer solar installations under the state program, with another $293 million in incentives pending.

Some critics question whether subsidies for residential solar are too high. Even accounting for the special benefits of rooftop solar--including the fact that it produces no carbon emissions, needs no transmission capacity and tends to peak in mid-day, when power is needed most--the social cost currently outweighs its benefits, according to University of California energy economist Severin Borenstein.

Needless to say, his view isn't particularly popular. But all should agree on the importance of driving down costs further--to make solar an even bigger win for customers and the environment we all cherish.

Here Comes the Sun . . . Power

Kory Raftery — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:08:56 -0800

By: Kory Raftery

All solar, all the time - or at least for the better part of this week at the Anaheim Convention Center - where Solar Power International (SPI) '09 brought nearly 1,000 solar exhibits from every part of the solar energy industry.

The Solar Electric Power Association teams up with the Solar Energy Industries Association to host the massive conference, which organizers say doubled from 2008 to 2009. And some big names dropped by to share their opinions on the future of both utility-owned and delivered and distributed solar energy, including Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, actor and activist Ed Begley, Jr. and the SPI keynote speaker - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The showroom floor featured solar panel producers and installers, courses for those interested in starting a solar business and even one solar engineering firm whose representative said proudly, "If you have to pave paradise to put up a parking lot, might as well put solar panels over the cars!"

While there were countless impressive solar displays and many different sellers of panels, tracking systems and other varieties of solar infrastructure, one exhibit stood out to me as the only game in Anaheim.

Aimed at serving the need for power during emergencies or in remote locations, Green Tow, a company based out of southern Utah, is trying to take solar panels to the next level when it comes to mobility.

The company's founder Todd Myers admits that there are other trailers with solar panels, but he says "they're not as technologically advanced as his."

The mobile power block on Myers' trailers features Kyocera photovoltaic panels, a single linear actuator, batteries used by the military and a backup diesel generator... just in case. And he offers six different models for different situations - from those wanting to build a home in the wilderness to those who might allow their kids to bring their video games on family camping trips.