Event – SOLAR 2013

SOLAR 2013 opens April 16-20, 2013, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Maryland. The American Solar Energy Society(ASES) presents America’s longest-running solar conference series, now in its 42nd year. SOLAR 2013 will examine how mainstream renewable energy technologies are saving money today for small and large businesses, homeowners and utility companies. We’ll look at policy initiatives that can streamline permitting and financing, and explore the road forward as renewable installations double annually. This year a special session will examine the relationship between extreme weather events and renewable energy. We’ll also be asking our two German plenary speakers what the US can learn from Germany’s rapid conversion to renewable energy.


SOLAR 2013 Featured Speakers

This event will feature many distinguished speakers throughout the week of the conference:

• Bill McKibben, President and Co-Founder, 350.org – He will be speaking on Thursday, April 18th from 10:15-11:45. Bill McKibben, a well known environmental author and activist, is the founder of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. 350.org is named for the safe level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere, 350 parts per million.

• Kevin Knobloch, President, Union of Concerned Scientists – He will be speaking on Wednesday, April 17th from 10:15-11:45. Kevin Knobloch brings 32 years of experience in public policy, government, advocacy, and media to his job as president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). He is knowledgeable about a range of environmental and national security issues including global warming, natural resource and clean energy economics, renewable and efficient vehicle technologies, nuclear weapons, forest management, and corporate responsibility, as well as legislative strategy and procedure.

• Jochen Flasbarth, President, German Federal Environment Agency – He will be speaking on Thursday, April 18th from 10:15-11:45. Jochen Flasbarth has led Germany’s largest national environmental authority since September 2009. Prior to working for the German Federal Environment Agency, Flasbarth was the head of Directorate-General “Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources” at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

• David Wedepohl, Head of Department for Market and Communication, German Solar Industry Association – He will be speaking on Friday, April 19th from 10:15-11:45. David Wedepohl is a radio journalist by training who studied on both sides of the atlantic. He holds a masters degree in Journalism and Public Affairs which he achieved as a Fulbright scholar. His professional experience included working for the German embassy in Washington, DC as a press officer. He first came in touch with the solar industry while working for an American consulting company and now heads the department for market and communication at the German Solar Industry Association.

• Rhone Resch, President & CEO, SEIA – He will be speaking on Friday, April 19th from 10:15-11:45.Rhone Resch is the President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the national trade association of the solar energy industry in the United States. Representing an industry of over 5,000 companies and 100,000 employees, Rhone is the architect of the association’s strategic priorities.

• Laura Jones, Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP – She will be speaking on Friday, April 19th from 10:15-11:45. Laura Ellen Jones is a tax partner at Hunton & Williams LLP whose practice focuses almost exclusively on energy tax credit matters. Laura has represented numerous clients in section 45, 48, and 29/45K tax credit transactions involving solar, landfill gas, wind, open-loop biomass, geothermal, waste-to-energy, and refined coal facilities, including the financing and purchase and sale of facilities, and the structuring of commercial arrangements for the operation of the facilities.

• Eric Martinot, Report Author, REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report – He will be speaking on Wednesday, April 17th from 10:15-11:45. Dr. Eric Martinot has worked in renewable energy for 25 years and is an internationally recognized scholar, writer, and teacher on the subject. He is report author of the pioneering REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report, and was lead author from 2005-2010 of the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report, an annual synthesis of markets and policies.

• Tony Clifford, CEO, Standard Solar Inc. – He will be speaking on Friday, April 19th from 10:15-11:45. Tony Clifford is the Chief Executive Officer of Standard Solar, Inc. Since 2007 Mr. Clifford has led Standard Solar’s rapid growth into a nationally known PV developer/ EPC. Mr. Clifford began his career at Solarex Corporation, later acquired by British Petroleum and known as BP Solar.

• Travis L. Price III, Fellow of AIA – Travis Price will speak on The Mythic Modern: mythology, ecology, and technology…the spirit of place at the Emerging Architecture session of SOLAR 2013. This session takes place on Friday, April 19th from 3:15-4:45.

• Patricia Hoffman, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy – She will be speaking on Thursday, April 18th from 10:15-11:45. Patricia Hoffman is the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability at the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability leads the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to modernize the electric grid through the development and implementation of national policy pertaining to electric grid reliability and the management of research, development, and demonstration activities for “next generation” electric grid infrastructure technologies.

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