Leading Solar Experts to speak at Solar Power Colorado 2015: The Next 25 Years

Leaders in solar business, policy and technology will be speaking later this month at Solar Power Colorado 2015: The Next 25 Years. The annual conference of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association will acknowledge the quarter century history of COSEIA while focusing on the future. The conference takes place February, 23-25 at the Omni Resort in Broomfield and registration is open at http://coseia.org/conference/. “We are delighted that inspirational leaders in the solar industry from around the nation are coming to engage in stimulating conversation that we hope will lead to great insights into the best path forward,’’ said Rebecca Cantwell, executive director of COSEIA. Headlining the opening CEO panel will be the new CEO of RES Americas, Glen Davis, and Abengoa Solar’s U.S. executive Frederick Redell, along with home grown Colorado solar leaders Paul Spencer of Clean Energy Collective and Lou Villaire of Grand Junction’s Atlasta Solar. Exploring the Future of Utilities will be utility leaders including Marc Romito, renewable energy program manager for Arizona Public Service, Beth Chacon of Xcel Energy, Derek Elder of Grand Valley Power and Heather Bailey, who is spearheading Boulder’s efforts to create a new municipal utility. They’ll be joined by veteran utilities executives David Freeman and Julie Blunden in a session moderated by Tanuj Deora, EVP of the Solar Electric Power Association. Panel sessions will explore all the hot-button solar issues of the day. Looking into the future of energy storage and batteries will be speakers from Solar City, Rocky Mountain Institute, Iron Edison and the Energy Storage Association. A session moderated by Rick Gilliam of Vote Solar looking at state policies will feature Jacqueline Patterson, Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program of the NAACP, along with Wirth Chair at CU Mark Safty and speakers from SunShare, Fort Collins Utilities and more. Climate Change policy is on the minds of everyone from the President to the United Nations and the our panel will feature top experts on national, state and global policy including leading climate scientist Kevin Trenberth from NCAR, John Jimison of the Energy Future Coalition, and Laura Farris of the EPA. New solar financing models are cropping up for solar energy systems both big and small, and our panel of experts will include top Colin Murchie of Sol Systems and Blake Jones of Namaste Solar, along with experts from the Colorado Energy Office and NREL. Looking at what it will take to build a more intelligent energy system is the subject of a panel on The Internet of Energy that will feature Ameet Konkar, Enphase Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives; Vince Guthrie of Ft. Carson, Chris Black of Tendril and Paul Denholm of NREL. Solar thermal technologies and financing methods are developing quickly and Andrew East, CEO of AET Solar will share his approach, as will Patrick Sheppard, the President of VaporGenics. John Perlin, author of Let It Shine: The 6000 year story of Solar Energy will be the luncheon speaker on Feb. 25. Solar Power Colorado also features a prominent exhibit hall where leading solar organizations from numerous industry segments will show off their newest technology and solutions. They include CED Greentech, SolarEdge, Battery Systems, NESCO, Sunbandit, Enphase, Solectira, eGauge and many more. Visit 2015 Solar Power Colorado Exhibitors to see our current list of exhibiting companies from around the country.