Unfortunately if it's anything like the one last year, what you see in the picture on that link is the extent of it. There were only maybe two dozen vendors and 1/4 were selling jerky or other things that had nothing to do with alternative energy. [img]images/smiles/icon_sad.gif[/img]

Southern California Renewable Energy Expo

Southern California's Only Renewable Energy Expo in 2003!

Saturday & Sunday, August 2-3, 2003
Los Angeles County Fairgrounds

Most likely, this has interest primarily for folks who are in or near California; you can Click here for directions to the Fair Grounds

Since this section is IMHO, it is my opinion that maybe we have a separate section for posts like these, (perhaps broken down by date or state or some other criteria) but I'll leave that to Henry to decide what's best. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Hope everyone is having an excellent solar summer!

Cheers!
-Roger [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

Wow... sounds like a real downer. I hope to make it and will report back if anyone is interested.

FWIW, I went to one that had (among others) the Home Power mag, RV Power products and the SoCal Edison folks (our local privately held utility), I thought that meeting & talking with them alone was worth the trip & admission. I guess my expectations were in a better place.

Their website lists "Just a few of the companies represented at last years expo" followed by a list of 33 companies that (hopefully) have more than Jerky! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Home Power Magazine, BP Solar, Schott Applied Power,California Energy Commission, Kyocera Solar, DanKoff Solar Products, Southern California Edison, Shell Solar, Trojan Batteries, Matrix Solar Products, Solatron Technologies, Environmental Solar Design, RV Power Products, Vanner Products, Alpha Technologies, Solar Engineering Industries, So Cal Solar Energy, Glendora Dodge, Carlson Solar, Independent Energy Solutions, Netdisty, H&L Energy Saver, Wentworth Electric, Alpan.com, MK Battery, Warmack Electric, Inter Mountain Mortgage, Claremont Toyota, A-1 Solar, Wilderness Energy, Advanced Solar Electric, Econoair & Double G Products

BTW, it may sound like I am connected with these show guys in some way... I am not, just excited about renewables & solar energy. [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

-Roger

I'll probably still go but I'm not getting my hopes up. A lot of the vendors listed only had a table with some brochures. There was very little actual hardware. And I don't think anyone had anything you could actually buy on the spot (besides jerky [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]). On the other hand, it was the show last year that got me interested enough to build my system.

Roger,

Did you make it to the show? I went Saturday morning and as expected I was pretty disappointed. This time I counted and there were 30 booths. No jerky this time [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] but a few were not really alternative energy related. Many though (like last year) had nothing but business cards and a few brochures. Xentrex was there and only had a Suntie unit just two other items that I didn't really look at. I didn't see RV Power this time. All in all it took about 15 minutes to walk through (twice and slowly). At $8 for parking and $6 (x2) to get in, the $20 didn't go far. Oh, I did get a few pens and a solar powered calculator from SCE, so I guess it wasn't a total waste. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

In my quest to learn more about photovoltaics I attended the show today (Saturday) at the LA County Fairgrounds. It was small but that actually made it better in my opinion. I'm pretty new to this and today was my first opportunity to see and touch the equipment. My research has been via the internet and magazines.

I agree the solar equipment displays were somewhat minimal but there was a good sampling. Most of the booths had pamphlets and brochures, some dealers even had put together handouts for pre-packaged systems. There were also a few booths with wind energy systems, one with gel batteries and a couple booths with generators. A number of solar pool heating options were presented and the mortgage bankers were there. Of course Southern California Edison was there with brochures about the rebates and net metering (yes, I got a pen and a solar calculator). I finally got to see and touch the UniSolar unbreakable roofing shingles and laminate panels. Admire the inverters and modules. I met the HomePower magazine folks, bought a subscription and picked up some back issues. I didn't see any jerkey hawkers.

Because the show was small I was able to get a turn to actually speak with a couple vendors and have a few basic questions answered. Of course now that I am home and can read the pamphlets my level of understanding has gone up and I have thought of more questions. I think it was $14 bucks well spent and appreciated the opportunity to find information all under one roof.