COSEIA panel: Future of solar is stability

Or call it more solutions for solar as it goes through what’s best described as an awkward period. That’s a takeaway from industry leaders at this year’s Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSIEA) annual Solar Power Colorado.

Solar is a global industry with mercurial growth over the past few years—like a kid in its early teen years going through a pair of shoes in a week. Meanwhile module prices have fallen significantly, showing maturity, but the manufacturers behind it are struggling to remain profitable, like worried parents trying to buy more shoes and wondering when the spurt will stop. Meanwhile policymakers and are trying to figure out if it’s time to boost solar up a grade by letting it succeed on its own, and financiers and utilities are trying to figure out if solar’s ready to start making them more money.

What’s needed to fix all this and get solar through this growth spurt? Stability—from modules pricing to policy to financing options.

While 2012 will likely be a year of corrections for the solar industry, the key to future growth will be more stability that grows out of this period.

During the introductory keynote of the conference a group of solar thought leaders discussed what would happen in 2012 and what was needed for the solar industry to move forward. The panel included Rhone Resch, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, COSIEA’s parent; Neal Lurie, executive director of COSEIA; Paula Mints, principal solar analyst with Navigant; Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute; and Adam Browning, executive director of the Vote Solar Initiative.

“We're not an issue anymore,” Resch said. “We are an industry.” He cited the more than 100,000 people the solar industry now employs and 5,000 companies in the industry throughout the U.S.

For the industry to move forward, Resch called for it to come together, building from the foundation it’s started.

“That foundation is going to allow us to create a national market for solar energy. As the prices come down the policy structure changes,” he said.

One of the key things that will continue to drive solar in the industry in the U.S. is more innovation.

“That's why we’re going to have not only the most dynamic market, but the most stable market in the long run. Because of that innovation,” Resch said.