Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

Leaving Intersolar behind

11. June 2010 By:  Vesna Milankov

The last day of the Intersolar 2010 in Munich. The final opportunity to meet new contacts, make business and leave a positive impression on the thousands and thousands of visitors. And the time for my last blog.

In the hectic atmosphere of the third and last day of the  2010 Intersolar Europe trade fair, where the stands are already packing up and everybody is running around in a hurry, I’m trying to figure out what my final thoughts on this annual event are.

Projects for rural electrification powered by the off -grid solar units presented at this year’s Intersolar are one of the most positive impressions for me. I’m quite sure that behind all that projects lies the marketing strategy of solar companies, but I’d say that further steps in this direction should be encouraged. Call me an optimist or a naïve dreamer if you want, but I really want to believe that developing countries and ecosystems could benefit from increase solar generating electricity units.

Looking through the list of companies presented an this year’s Intersolar, I wondered about whether there is sunshine for Eastern Europe? The majority of companies were coming from Germany (again how is this country the leader in renewable energy technologies?) and an astonishing presence of Chinese companies is actually promoted by the new governmental subsidies providing a big boost to China-based solar manufacturers. A favorable geographical position of eastern European countries provides quite high annual solar radiation intensity, implying that the problem is not in the shiny star.

It seems that the solar based energy generation is just starting to have significant share in the overall energy consumption is this part of the world. And let us not forget that traditionally used renewable energy sources such as hydropower or biomass are already having a significant share of the total energy mix.

As always, policy and politics are two mechanisms that strongly tune the development of renewable energies market. Ambitious renewable energy targets recently adopted in the EU with the Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC requires from all Member States to reach a 20 percent share of energy from renewable energy sources by 2020. With just a little bit of patience, I’m confident we’ll be seeing a dynamic development of the photovoltaics markets (and maybe solar thermal too) in this part of the world.

Another fact additionally confirming that the solar industry is growing is the impressive number of job offers, and even specially organized booth for career opportunities at this year’s Intersolar.

And another thing: the solar industry can be quite creative. And here I’m not speaking about the new elegant design of solar panels with different colors or architecturally innovative solar facades. Dear ladies, the high-tech absolutely fabulous solar jewelry is a definite must have! A wearable solar technology! The rings, earrings, bracelets with solar cells combine beauty and elegance promoting renewable energies on more sophisticated level. It is also a very smart idea on how to benefit from the rising solar industry even though not directly involved in the business.

Just like a satellite or a tiny but not harmful parasite benefiting at no expense to the host. While the sun is so pleasantly shining and glittering on my brand new solar earrings (yes I had to buy one pair and stay with an empty wallet), I’m leaving the Intersolar fair trade with the hope that the energy optimization solar powered projects will reach more competitive levels with other renewable energy projects and significantly contribute to the total share of renewable energies in the energy mix.