Photos from the Floor and Solar Stories from the Corporate World

The exhibition floor at the Solar Power Conference is unbelievable! Obviously there are many solar PV panels to look at, but I also saw a Tesla Motors Electric Car at one of the booths! This is a high performance electric car that will be on the streets any month now. Many photos from the floor are included with this post (I even met a former member of the UW-Madison Wrestling team who now works in the solar industry).



I also attended a conference on Solar PV initiatives/green initiatives in the corporate world. Four company representatives spoke about their respective company's foray into a solar PV system. Macy's (Marc Gordon), Johnson and Johnson (Mark Loukides), eBay (Bence Oliver), and Google (Robyn Beavers) were all represented on the panel.

All of these companies are doing some extremely innovative things with not only solar pv systems, but also efficiency, overall sustainability, etc. They seem to pride themselves on the leadership that their companies have displayed in the area of environmental awareness. Their policies and practices are cutting edge and serve as a wonderful carrot for all of us. They all see solar as a solid financial choice, especially given the rising cost of traditional electricity generation. Additionally, they all believe their green initiatives to be a competitive advantage in terms of customers and attraction/retention of company employees. Furthermore, all of the panelists felt as though their respective projects would not have been financially possible without financial assistance/grant programs.

Pictured here-Marc Gordon of Macy's, Mark Loukides of Johnson and Johnson, Bence Oliver of eBay and Robyn Beavers, Sustainability Officer from Google