That’s Anne McDaniels, working the Heliodyne booth at this year’s Solar Power International. But she doesn’t work for Heliodyne, which is a U.S. based solar hot water equipment manufacturer. She freelances for conventions.

It’s no surprise that convention floors and industry expos employ what many refer to as “booth babes” or “booth candy.” It’s a staple of the auto industry.

You know—the girl in the bikini leaning up against the new Ford Mustang. The idea is, you lure men in with the beautiful women, and then snag a sale. It’s fishing, basically.

But does a price-driven market like solar need sex to “trick” men into visiting a booth? I don’t think so.

Solar consumers do a ton of research before making a purchase, especially when it comes to sourcing panels for a large commercial or utility-scale project. In those instances, using sex to stimulate a possible sale makes almost no sense.

The fact is that solar prides itself on being different than other industries. We're forward-thinking; oil and coal is yesterday's idea. But if solar is, in fact, the modern solution, why are we still using old school marketing tricks?

The wrong message?

But what about the women who work in the solar industry?

There are a good number of freelancers like McDaniels, who don’t work for the companies, which may convince some customers to bypass the women at the booths altogether in order to talk to someone who actually works at the company.

One woman, who asked that she not be named in this article, that works in the financing sector of the solar industry said she finds it difficult to be taken seriously on the expo floor.

“I went up to one guy and said, ‘if you have any questions, I can answer them,’ and he was like, ‘I’ll just wait to talk to one of the men,’” she said.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not getting down on women like McDaniels who freelance for the show. There is a market—people are filling it, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But at its best, the tactic draws men to a booth for the wrong reason—and at worst, it alienates many women who are trying to make their way in a predominantly male industry.

“It’s very rare that I feel like a minority, but I’ve felt like one for the past few days,” said another woman I talked to at the event, who is a PR and marketing consultant for the solar industry. “It’s bizarre.”

Anyone can see that most of this year’s attendees are men, but there are a growing number of women in the industry—so many that this year’s Professional Women in Solar breakfast was sold out and needed to expand the space twice in order to fit the number of participants.

Solar vs. sexy

The real question is, I think, why does solar need to be sexy?

Shawn Qu of Canadian Solar briefly addressed this during one of the panel discussions at SPI.

“You can make solar as sexy as you want, but no one will buy it unless it has a low price,” he said.

Personally, I hate when people try to make things that have nothing to do with sex, sexy.

The food world does this all the time. “Sex on a plate,” they say.

Eating an expertly crafted meal is in no way similar to having sex—if it is, you're doing both of them wrong. 

Essentially, the comparison is completely unnecessary. The only other activity remotely similar to sex is done when you’re alone, and any products associated with that activity are not sexy. They’re tools or, in many cases, prosthetics.

So what’s really sexy about solar once you remove the women who are standing alongside the panels on display? Nothing.

Some of the ideas behind them—saving the environment, reducing our carbon footprint, etc—are novel, but they aren’t arousing. If so, walking from one side of the packed expo floor at SPI to the other would be entirely more interesting and uncomfortable—a gauntlet of the worst kind.

Should the solar industry be any different?

In terms of trade shows, there’s nothing remotely special about using a pretty girl in revealing clothing to entice men into a potential transaction.

But should the solar industry, with its message of progressive ideas and clean energy, maybe move beyond that?

Everyone I talked to at the event said, “yes.”

“I most definitely hold solar and renewable industries at a higher standard,” said one woman working at a solar booth.

“I think the solar industry should be a leader,” said another. “It should walk the talk. It should be progressive.”

And until the industry welcomes the idea that women have more to offer consumers than their body parts, solar will be, at least on the expo floor, no different than oil, coal, or natural gas—men talking to men about business and looking at women for sport.

Editor’s Note: The women speaking to me about the event chose to remain anonymous because they are in Dallas representing their companies and did not wish to jeopardize their positions by associating the companies they work for with their views about the event itself.