Conference Site Visit

The next day was an energy conference, where several different alternative energy companies from all around the world gathered to educate potential investors on their respective products. A huge issue with alternative energies is gathering the funds to produce it at a large scale. I noticed that there were an overwhelmingly large amount of small solar companies. Making solar technologies entails many steps: since the solar market is not big enough to have a solar company specialize in one step of the procedure, you see many companies doing all of the steps themselves on a small scale. This is not efficient.  I believe if some of these companies were to merge and utilize each other’s resources, the companies would establish themselves as a larger force in renewables, the solar market would expand, and greenhouse emissions will be reduced. My favorite exhibit was Cinesolar, a cinema project that utilizes clean and renewable energies. It is a van that is run on solar power and provides power to all of the film equipment, including the speakers and projector. This van roams around the country exhibiting films. I believe that a similar project to this would be successful in the United States and help spread awareness about renewable technology. It was really interesting to see the different solar technologies that could eventually be implemented in the home, such as rooftop panels and water heating systems. It seems promising and exciting and I can’t wait to see such technology be implemented where I live and around the globe.