23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition held in Valencia, Spain last week was one of the best events I have attended in over 15 years of attending trade shows in most parts of the world.
Its focused format for both PV companies and technical presentations has made this event the premier of its kind and that comes from comments made to me during the show by industry leaders such as Anton Milner at Q-Cells, Dr. Chin-Yao Tsai of E-Ton Solar, Noel Leeson of Linde Electronics through to Roger Little at Spire Corporation.
That kind of level of executive that sees this event as the best when there are so many events packed into the calendar is praise indeed.
On a personal note Photovoltaics International’s booth was mobbed at times due to the launch of the first edition of our new technical quarterly journal. Thousands of copies were handed out and we actually ran out of copies Thursday afternoon.
It was also rare to see company booths lacking visitors and at times on the Wednesday and Thursday many of the larger stands in all of the halls were buzzing.
Although some people had several hours of traveling each day to get to the event as hotel rooms for more than 40 miles around were fully booked no one seemed to mind that much as the booth parties and evening hospitality events gave everyone something to do post show.
The pending Spanish cut in MW installations didn’t dampen the event and there remains hope that a compromise may be possible.
Our camera man, Daniel Ryder had a very busy schedule of meetings at the show all week but we had insisted that he broke away from meetings to capture the essence of the show in Valencia on film. Even I was impressed that he found time in one hour on the Thursday of the event to capture the essence of the show!
Roll-on next year!