The Phoenix Sun

Twitter founder Biz Stone at Solar Power International 10

I’m reporting for The Energy Collective this week from Solar Power International — with over 27,000 people attending, it’s the largest solar industry event in North America. This year, the solar show is at the LA Convention Center. I’ve been live-tweeting at @energycolletiv and my first article is up at TEC’s site: Solar Power as Rock Star: Milli Vanilli or Herbie Hancock?

Also at TEC: Solar Power Today - and Tomorrow.

Q: Is CPV the Future of Solar? A: It Depends on the Location.

Nevada Solar One (Photo by Acciona Solar Power)

I recently had the privilege of participating in a webcast on the future of concentrating solar power (CSP) in the U.S. The panel discussion was moderated by Marc Gunther, a contributing editor at Fortune magazine who has spent many years writing on energy issues.

The discussion was fascinating for me, since I was the only one of the three panelists not employed by a CSP company. That meant I could ask a lot of questions of people who have vast working experience with this promising utility-scale technology.

The other participants were Michael Jungreis, manager of business development for Siemens Concentrated Solar Power, and Bob Cable, plant manager of Nevada Solar One, a 64 MW CSP plant that went on-line in 2007.

The webcast was sponsored by The Energy Collective and ran, live, on July 14, 2010. You’ll find the webcast here.