Significant photovoltaic (PV) conferences and events in 2010.
Suffering from PV conference overload?

In chronological order, here are the PV conferences I am interested in following or covering in 2010. As in the past, my focus remains technical conferences and business to business trade shows, not regional marketing or sales events. I am biased towards the United States and Europe and really need to branch out and explore events in Asia and Japan. Maybe I will find an opportunity in 2010.

ENF.cn maintains a comprehensive list of global PV Solar Exhibitions and Conferences with one or more events per week except in the summer and December. PHOTON International’s PV Event list expands the solution set, but the combination of ENF and PHOTON still misses a few events!

With Photovoltaic Conferences and Exhibitions more abundant than Thin Film PV manufacturers, why hasn’t the trade press written about PV event consolidation?

I am a bit tired of mega events, but the PV industry has rallied around select events as platforms for launching products and entering new markets. The only location alignment in my short list is San Francisco with two events.

PHOTON‘s 5^th Photovoltaic Technology Show 2010 USA
February 2-4, 2010
San Francisco, California USA

Building upon PHOTON‘s Searching for the »Second Solar« Conference Series USA, the 5th Photovoltaic Technology Show (PTS USA 2010 Show Flyer) adds an exhibition to the conference located at Moscone West Levels 1-3.

PHOTON’s Solar Terawatt-hours Conference Series

• PHOTON’s 2^nd PV Thin-Film Conference – February 2, 2010
• PHOTON’s 2^nd PV Start-up Conference – February 3, 2010
• PHOTON’s 3^rd Solar Electric Utility Conference – February 4, 2010

PV Thin Film and start-ups are a perfect fit for California, and the Utility Conference Program is strong with both Utility and PV industry participation.

2nd Concentrated Photovoltaic Summit US
February 2-3, 2010
San Diego, California USA

CPV Today hosts their second US Concentrated PhotoVoltaics (CPV) Summit with unfortunate timing concurrent to PHOTON’s 5th Technology Show. Here is the Full Agenda and Who’s Attending.

Fifth Annual Clean Technology & Renewables Conference
February 23, 2010
New York City, New York USA

The Piper Jaffray & Co. (NYSE:PJC) invitation only, client event is hosted by Sr. Research Analyst Jesse Pichel and team.

6. International Conference on Concentrating Photovoltaic Systems (CPV-6)
April 7-9, 2010
Freiburg, Germany

Renamed, CPV-6 follows ICSC-5 (International Conference on Solar Concentrators for the Generation of Electricity) as the scientific conference focused on CPV technology Topics. The 9th World Conference on Thermophotovoltaics (TPV-9) Generation of Electricity will be held “in conjunction with and at the conclusion of the CPV-6” on April 9, 2010, in the afternoon.

PHOTON’s 6^th Photovoltaic Technology Show 2010 Europe
April 27 – 29, 2010
Stuttgart, Germany

Moving from Munich, the 6th Photovoltaic Technology Show (PTS Europe 2010 Show Flyer) headlines an expanded exhibition in Stuttgart. In addtion to photovoltaic production equipment and material manufacturers, a third hall has been added “to present findings from basic research and applications research, testing and measurement equipment, product and process certification, as well as semi-finished products and BOS components.”

The conference program has the same All Star lineup as 2009:

• 8^th Solar Silicon Conference – April 27, 2010
• 5^th PV Investors Conference – April 28, 2010
• 5^th PV Production Equipment Conference (Part 1 – C-Si) – April 28, 2010
• 5^th PV Production Equipment Conference (Part 2 – Thin film) – April 29, 2010
• 4^th Solar Electric Utility Conference – April 29, 2010

I was pleased to fulfill my silicon destiny at PHOTON’s 7th Solar Silicon Conference last year.

Intersolar 2010
June 9-11, 2010 (PV Industry Forum 2010 June 7-8, 2010)
Munich (München), Germany

Intersolar returns to the New Munich Trade Fair Centre for the third straight year. By “Connecting Solar Business”, Intersolar 2010 expects around 1500 exhibitors to attract over 60000 visitors.

The PV Industry Forum 2010 begins the two days prior to the start of Intersolar.

• PV Market Trends Europe, USA, India – June 7, 2010
Overview followed by In-depth market and industry assessment

• PV Thin Film Technology, PV Silicon Technology, PV Power Plants, PV Production, CEO Panel PV Industry – June 8, 2010

• PV Off Grid Power – June 10, 2010

The full Conference Program was not available at post time.

I opted for Intersolar 2009 over PVSC 34 after a Press Room conversation, and I was not disappointed. PVSC 34 was even located in my home town, Philadelphia!

35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 35)
June 20-25, 2010
Honolulu, Hawaii USA

PVSC 35 lands at Waikiki for a week long conference covering ten (10) Technical Areas. Remember, Abstracts are due by February 15, 2010, so please View Technical Area E-Book for the details. In addition, a 60000 square foot “Exhibition will have special focus on measurement and characterization tools, and we will be highlighting space PV applications.”

Intersolar North America 2010 / SEMICON West 2010
July 13-15, 2010 Exhibition
San Francisco, California USA

Intersolar North America (NA) 2009 hosted 444 exhibitors and attracted 17000 combined trade visitors at Moscone Center. Download the SEMICON West 2009 Post-Show Report for the detailed metrics. The Intersolar NA 2010 conference program is supposed to be available in early February.

25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
September 6-10, 2010 (Exhibition September 6-9, 2010)
Valencia, Spain

The 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) is the harmonic convergence of EU PVSEC, the 36th US IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, and the 20th Asia/Pacific PV Science and Engineering Conference as the 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-5) despite the conflict with the US Labor Day holiday.

Well, I was shocked when Valencia was announced as the 2010 EU PVSEC venue. I have painful memories of lost luggage and stolen articles with Iberia (Ibysmal) Airlines. My advice is to bring only carry-on luggage and hold on tight!

Abstracts are due January 30, 2010, per the Call for Papers.

Solar Power International 2010
October 12-14, 2010
Los Angeles, California USA

As “North America’s largest business-to-business solar industry event”, Solar Power International (SPI) continues to hop southern California venues to convince our state’s southern citizens to become mainstream solar adopters. SPI is the show to launch new products or enter the US solar market.

SPI 2009 had record attendance of over 24000 industry professionals plus some 3000 Public Night visitors. Don’t forget SPI 2009 Conference session recordings and presentations are available online for registered attendees.

23rd NREL Industry Growth Forum
October 19-21, 2010
Denver, Colorado USA

The original renewable energy business plan competition continues its run in Denver with the date set early. Last year, I had less than half a day to attend but managed to post Cool Earth Solar at the 22nd NREL Industry Growth Forum. The 22nd Forum Proceedings are available.

11th Forum Solarpraxis
November 11-12, 2010
Berlin, Germany

The 11th Forum Solarpraxis will occur two weeks before the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States. Here is the Announcement in English und Deutsch. I missed the last two, so perhaps the Thanksgiving scheduling was not so bad after all?

For whatever reason, I never seem to fit in the ASES (American Solar Energy Society) National Solar Conference. SOLAR 2010, CONNECT in the Desert, will be located in Phoenix, Arizona USA from May 17-22, 2010.

One more thing. The second PV America was postponed and has been rescheduled to return to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA on April 3-5, 2011.