Make plans to attend Intersolar and ees North America, the first major solar and storage industry events of the year in the United States. The co-located exhibition and conference series will return to the heart of the largest solar and storage market in the country, July 10th – 12th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Together, these events sit at the cross-section of solar technology, energy storage and smart transportation, and connect industry professionals from across the world.
Since 2008, Intersolar North America has served as the industry’s go-to event for invaluable information and premier networking opportunities, and this year’s event is no different. Expect to see an expanded focus on the technologies and market opportunities for solar and storage, as well as a new special exhibition, Power2Drive, focused on the electrification of transportation. Conference sessions and exhibition workshops will feature insightful commentary from leading executives, policymakers, and industry experts designed to give attendees a critical business edge.
This year, attendees will benefit from special attention paid to the recent tariffs passed by the Trump Administration in response to the Section 201 trade complaint, as well as conference sessions on smart renewable energy, the rise of project finance, applications for energy storage and electric vehicles and both local and national policy trends influencing the growth of the sector. The conference program (https://www.intersolar.us/index.php?id=8244&tx_intersolarconference_pi1%5bshare%5d=G6VRMGGZ) features 40 sessions and workshops that draw on the expertise of Intersolar and ees North America’s roster of partners to deliver the information needed to navigate the solar and energy storage industries in the face of these new challenges and opportunities.
Despite the tariffs, there are positive signs for solar and storage. GTM Research expects the solar industry to deploy more than 10 gigawatts of installations in the United States in 2018 and 11.9 gigawatts in 2019, with continuous growth through 2022. Many states are in the process of fulfilling their renewables mandates — California is on track to meet its Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) of reaching 50 percent of generation as specified by California Energy Commissioner David Hochschild.
Additionally, the maturation of the energy storage industry represents further opportunity for renewable energy growth. Energy storage boosts the power generation capacity of solar, and industry experts have identified energy storage technologies as the driving force behind widespread renewables implementation. Mandates in California and a proposed program in Arizona (https://www.utilitydive.com/news/arizona-regulator-proposes-80-clean-energy-mandate-3-gw-storage-target/515872/) demonstrate the potential for solar-plus-storage and point to additional market opportunities on the horizon. GTM Research reports that from 2017 to 2023, the U.S. storage market is expected to grow to nearly 15 times its current size, with behind-the-meter deployments making up half of the annual energy storage market by 2022.
