The Intersolar conference, being held in downtown San Francisco this week and which will see over 15,000 solar execs meeting, mingling and doing business across 120,000 square feet of space, comes at a unique point in the development of the U.S. solar market: one of major hurdles and massive opportunities. It’s only the conference’s second year — it’s the North American version of the massive German solar show, which delivers major news from the solar industry every year — and was launched last year to take advantage of the emergent nature and importance of the U.S. solar market.

Here’s the issue: The U.S. solar market (both as a supplier and as a consumer) has the potential to be one of the largest in the world, and has a wealth of startups, many born out of the labs of U.S. universities and pumped full of venture capital dollars, that are trying to scale new technologies to bring down the price of solar to grid parity (so it’s equal to the cost of fossil fuels). But until more recently, the U.S. solar industry hasn’t had the types of incentives that have encouraged other international solar markets to grow (Germany, Spain). But with the passage of the stimulus package, the extension of the clean energy tax credits, and the climate bill that’s winding its way through the Senate, the U.S. is starting to offer important government support. At the same time, the U.S. industry has to face the international economic slump that has delivered less demand for solar projects, in addition to dropping silicon prices (the key ingredient in solar panels), and, of course, international competition. It’s a difficult landscape to navigate, but here are seven trends to look for:

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It’s a question we hear all the time: Why doesn’t California have a German-style feed-in tariff for the solar industry? German utilities pay a high price for any solar electricity fed into the grid, with the cost distributed among the country’s ratepayers. The much-esteemed policy made Germany a huge solar market, with 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity installed last year. For comparison, the United States would need 6 gigawatts of annual solar installations, 20 times more than it has today, to reach the same level of market penetration.

But at a luncheon Wednesday to discuss solar trends in advance of the Intersolar North America conference next month, some California solar insiders voiced skepticism about whether a German-style feed-in tariff would be the end-all policy for the state.

In fact, California already has a feed-in tariff, but it’s ineffective because the price is low, based on prices for natural gas. The state also has a net-metering program in which solar customers use the electricity they generate for their own use, then feed excess electricity into the grid, running their meters backward. In addition, California has a solar incentive program, which offers declining rebates for solar projects, and a renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010.

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Back before the stimulus package or the Waxman-Markey bill, when no one was sure whether tax credits for renewable energy would be re-upped or allowed to fade away, U.S. mayors decided to adopt their own climate policy. In signing on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (a pact to strive for the greenhouse gas reductions targeted by the Kyoto Protocol), cities such as Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco sent a “we’ll do it on our own” statement in response to the lack of federal policy.

Since the launch of the agreement in 2005, some 500 more cities have signed on (and counting). And while some cities just signed the document and moved on, others have used the initiative to draft further innovative strategies that deliver meaningful reductions. The most effective strategies, by far, have been those that bring sustainability initiatives into the office of economic development and turn the city into an early adopter of “green” products and services. It’s exactly this sort of strategy that makes the following cities the best in the country to be a cleantech start-up. In a report, Living Cities Foundation interviewed sustainability directors and gathered data from city sustainability departments throughout the country. We’ve landed on the following seven as the best spots to start and grow a cleantech company (more interviews from the report here).

• San Jose
• Boston
• Austin
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Portland
• Denver

First up: San Jose »

Image credit: arimoore.

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It’s a rough world out there for solar, but it’s easier when you have friends. That’s why Germany’s Q-Cells and China’s LDK Solar are forming a joint venture to build solar power plants in Europe and China. The companies said today that they’ve already started work on their first project, a 40-megawatt photovoltaic plant in Europe.

The partnership makes a lot of sense in a tight economy. The venture will use solar wafers from LDK and solar cells from Q-Cells, and the companies said it won’t require any additional working capital or other funding. Because this team-up encompasses the supply of both solar wafers and solar cells, it could give the pair a financial advantage in the large-scale solar market, and the companies said they can cut costs on the projects by taking advantage of their complementary business models and regional expertise.

The move follows a wave of consolidation in the solar industry, with other players in the industry also pairing up their solar supplies.

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It’s not just the solar biz that’s consolidating these days — energy-efficient lighting, as well as other tech sectors, are following suit, too. Atlanta lighting company Acuity Brands said today that it signed an agreement to buy Wallingford, Conn.-based Sensor Switch, a manufacturer of lighting controls and energy management systems, for approximately $205 million in stock, cash and notes.

Sensor Switch’s products, which Acuity said can substantially cut energy consumption, include motion and light sensors, and distributed lighting control devices. Acuity said the deal will give it a boost in the building construction market, as well as in building control systems.

The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, comes on the heels of Acuity’s recent deal for Gendale, Calif.’s Lighting Control and Design. Acuity grabbed Lighting Control and Design in January, but did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Lighting Control and Design’s products include dimming controls, building interfaces and digital thermostats for commercial and institutional lighting systems.

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Tough times mean the big companies get bigger and the smaller firms, well, drop out. On Wednesday morning renewable energy project financier Recurrent Energy will announce that it has bought up the solar project assets of Chicago-based UPC Solar, which has developed solar farms across the U.S. and Canada. Recurrent Energy’s CEO Arno Harris wouldn’t disclose a purchase price, but he said that Recurrent Energy started scouring the market for potential acquisitions soon after the current financial turmoil hit.

UPC Solar has a solar project pipeline of 350 MW and Recurrent now plans to finance, build and operate them, looking to put 100 MW of solar projects online by 2012. Recurrent has the capital to buy up its competition, because last July it raised a whopping $75 million from Hudson Clean Energy Partners. Harris says Recurrent could raise additional capital from Hudson if need be, but they haven’t disclosed a new round at this point. Beyond funding for operations and acquisitions Recurrent raises project financing for its solar projects, which it will continue to do throughout the year.

Consolidation is the name of the game right now in the solar industry. Spanish solar power developer Fotowatio plans to buy up some of the assets of San Francisco’s MMA Renewable Ventures in a $19.7 million deal. And rooftop solar installer Borrego Solar Systems decided to sell off its residential solar power installation business to groSolar and stick with commercial and government projects.

Commercial and residential solar installer Standard Solar has raised $8.5 million in second-round funding, the company said yesterday. The Gaithersburg, Md.-based startup currently operates in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., but plans to use this funding to expand throughout the mid-Atlantic region over the next two years.

With the recent extension of the investment tax credit, smaller players in the commercial and residential solar market are reacting quickly. Standard Solar tells us that even on the day that the ITC was passed, they noticed an uptick in calls about solar installations. The “land grab” for residential and commercial customers is back in effect.

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It’s easy to get lost in the solar development bubble that is California so it’s always good to be reminded that there are huge markets outside the Golden State. Mill Valley, Calif-based Solar Power Partners, a commercial solar developer, owner and manager, plans to expand nationally using $100 million in equity and debt financing and another $60 million in committed project financing, the company announced Monday.

Founded in 2006, the company has moved quickly; CEO and President Alexander von Welczeck tells us the company has already completed 19 projects. SPP currently has another 22 projects in development that it plans to complete by the end of November, by which time the company expects to have nearly 15 megawatts of installed capacity operating in California, Hawaii, New Jersey and Connecticut. While SPP will be looking to expand nationally, von Welczeck says the Northeast is an area that holds particular promise for SPP. Check out the company’s own solar map to see the layout of it’s projects. (We do love a good solar map!)

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So the first North American Intersolar, the San Francisco-based version of the massive European solar conference, is over. And the Earth2Tech crew sent these 9 stories from the show your way. Send us over your thoughts on our conference coverage — more stories/less stories, more photos? We’ll deliver what you want to read:

• News From 5 Solar Startups, including Wakonda, Fat Spaniel, Recurrent Energy, Sopogy, and Ausra.
• Germany’s 40MW Solar PV Project More Than Halfway Done
• SunPower to Cut Solar Power Costs In Half by 2012
• 5 Thoughts on U.S. Solar Thermal from Abengoa Solar’s Fred Morse
• Credit Crunch Hitting Residential Solar
• Chip Industry Will Drive Down Solar Costs
• Big Solar Conference Kicks Off in San Francisco
• A Funny Use for Solar-Powered Steam: Oil Recovery
• Solar Startup GreenVolts to Raise Sizable Funding This Year

The first annual North American solar conference kicked off on Tuesday with a lot of insight and discussion from some of the solar industry’s bigger and more well-established players (Applied Materials. SunPower). But leave it to the wily fast-moving startups to upstage the big guys when it comes to news. Here’s five startups — Wakonda, Fat Spaniel, Recurrent Energy, Sopogy, and Ausra — that announced some interesting news for the show.

Wakonda Raises $9.5M Series A: A Boston-based maker of solar photovoltaic technology, Wakonda Technologies, says it has raised $9.5 million in a Series A round from Advanced Technology Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Applied Ventures (Applied Materials VC arm) and the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund. Wakonda explains its technology as a wafer surface treatment that enables low cost metal materials to mimic the high efficiency of more expensive semiconductor material. Wakonda says this tech is “a revolutionary method” that will reduce material costs for the solar industry.

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