By Bill Spratley

SOLAR 2007 included ASES’ largest-ever trade show of 158 exhibits. Photo by Dan Bihn

“Why is the American Solar Energy Society holding SOLAR 2007, the 36th ASES National Solar Energy Conference, in Cleveland?”

It’s a question I heard often in the months leading up to SOLAR 2007, and each time I replied, “Why not Cleveland?” Now with the conclusion of this event, the Cleveland sustainable energy community has shown why it has a key position to play in the major leagues of this fast-growing industry.

Most of the 5,000 people, including thousands of Public Day attendees, who attended SOLAR 2007 July 7–12 discovered new insights into how many more Americans can be put to work making and using sustainable energy. The record 1,800 ASES registrants were treated to a sunny, urban community working hard to be “The Green City on the Blue Lake.”

The SOLAR 2007 theme, “Sustainable Energy Puts America to Work,” complemented the impressive SOLAR 2006 conference, which produced the ground-breaking report, Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.: Potential U.S. Carbon Emissions Reductions from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 2030. (Free download at www.ases.org/climatechange.) The report demonstrated that energy efficiency and renewable energy (EE/RE) have the potential to provide most, if not all, of the needed U.S. carbon emissions reductions.

Kicking off Saturday, July 7, the same day as the Live Earth concerts for climate-change mitigation, SOLAR 2007 brought “green collars” together with the Midwest’s blue-collar industries focused on creating EE/RE jobs. Such jobs are sorely needed by cities like Cleveland in America’s industrial heartland.