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The Grand Ballroom began to fill well before the Solar Power 2007 opening plenary began. (EP photo)

If I were to sum up the message of the opening remarks from the Solar Power 2007 conference, it would be simply: "We have arrived."

"As of last night we had over 8,100 people paid and registered to attend this event," SEPA Executive Director Julia Hamm said. "So by the time we see the end of the week come, I expect we will have over 10,000 registered attendees. So really, huge success for our event. We started just a couple of years ago in 2004 with 1,100 people and we could easily see 11,000 this year. So, amazing growth."

You'll notice some static and popping in the audio, but please don't attempt to adjust your earbuds. The Long Beach Convention Center had some audio problems. Otherwise Solar Power had the kind of problems event organizers love to have.

As the lights went up on the opening plenary session, the auditorium had filled to capacity -- about 2,000 people -- and more stood and listened from the lobby.

More from Solar Power 2007:

"Solar Power 2007 Round-Up" -- Articles, podcasts, blogs and webinars from the conference.

SEIA President Rhone Resch expressed his excitement about the vibrancy of the industry's largest conference:

"It's our time. We are in a position to grow like never before in the history of solar energy."

Then, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, himself a former energy industry executive, joined the chorus:

"We know what needs to be done and by damnit we better do it."
--Ted Turner, DT Solar

"When I first started out in this business, at a conference like this you might have a couple of hundred people if you were lucky. To see 8,000 to 10,000 people vitally engaged in this industry is truly gratifying."

Bottom-up change

There was another theme running through the keynote addresses this morning, a theme of individual responsibility.

"There's a role for national policy, a role for state policy, a role for the business community and all the way down to the individual," said Mayor Foster. "To be able to make the changes we're going to need for the environment -- to be able to deal with issues like global warming -- we're going to have to change our patterns."

Rhone Resch called for three actions from the attendees:

"Install solar, get involved in the Investment Tax Credit, and get involved in your [industry] organizations, because these are the groups that actually make things happen. SEIA alone cannot do it, SEPA alone cannot do it, but collectively as an industry, if we all step forward, we can do it together."

We also heard this message of individual responsibility from Ray Lane of investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

"We just can't stand there. This is basically a message to everybody in the world: everybody has to do their part," Lane said. "Politicians, technologists, researchers, and business people, are going to have to band together to make this happen."

"One person can't do it. But all of us together can," said special guest Ted Turner. "Many hands make light work. It's going to take everybody in the industry going to Washington and learning how to talk to those senators and congressmen."

Ted Turner

Yes, we were treated to an on-stage interview with the inimitable Ted Turner, whose unabashed remarks were the talk of the conference. Here's a sampling of his more memorable sound bytes:

With nearly 2,000 people in the opening plenary, most attendees saw Ted Turner only on the big i-mag screen. (EP photo)

"This is more than the business opportunity of the 21st century, I think this is the greatest business opportunity in the history of humanity; because the entire world is going to have to re-do its energy regime, and solar is going to be a very big part of it."

"At any given time on average, twice as many people watch Cartoon Network as CNN. At any given time, 50 times as many people are using coal-generated power than solar power; we aim to change that."

"We have to move at warp speed to stop using fossil fuel as quickly as we possibly can."

"I just am not -- without going down swinging -- I'm not going to leave a burned-out hothouse world that's not sustainable, to our children and grandchildren. It's just irresponsible for us to do that. We know what needs to be done and by damnit we better do it."

"We have the same kind of future ahead of us that cable TV had 30 years ago. I've already made one fortune and lost it, and I intend to make another with y'all. Let's get rich together and do a lot of good."

Wait until next year

The Solar Power conference has outgrown a few facilities in its four-year history, and it's just outgrown another one.

"Next year in San Diego we have an exhibit hall that is going to be three times the size of what we have this year," said Hamm. "So we're going to be tripling in size next year, and I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as we are."

Notes

Speakers in order of first appearance:

• Julia Judd Hamm, Executive Director of the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA)
• Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) President Rhone Resch
• Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, formerly head of Southern California Edison (SCE)
• Ray Lane of investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)
• Ted Turner, DT Solar, founder of CNN and Cartoon Network, among other cable successes.