During the 2010 Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit in San Diego, a large crowd learned that Chinese companies have cash and interest in the US solar energy market, yet partnerships require patience and low risk.

To explore the opportunities, R. Thomas Hoffmann, Partner with Ballard Spahr, led a panel with three experts on Chinese solar investing. They were:

• Jimmy Chuang, is with GCL Solar, the largest polysilicon producer in Asia and the largest solar developer in China.  GCL has access to $4.5 billion.

• K. Scott Son, Vice President of Project Finance at Suntech, the largest producer of silicon PV in the world (nearly $2 billion in revenue in 2008).

• Sha Wang, Principal at Cybernaut Investment, a family company with US and Chinese roots and a $500 million solar investment fund.

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GE just invested in them. Now, Guy Sella, founder and CEO of Israeli company SolarEdge, is planning a revolution. Don’t be alarmed though, this one isn’t dangerous. His goal is to transform the way photovoltaic systems are now operated, in terms of efficiency, safety and cost.

“People haven’t been looking at photovoltaic systems from a holistic point of view,” Sella tells ISRAEL21c. “Panel manufacturers care only about the panels and panel conversion efficiency. The people that develop classical inverters only care about the efficiency of the inverter. I asked: can we create a system that is better than we currently have?”

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Green businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area abound, and green professionals are fortunate enough to be offered an array of green events they can choose from at any time. As editor of green media outlet CleanTechies, I particularly like one event that is taking place tomorrow. The Green Chamber of Commerce and law firm Wendel Rosen are co-sponsoring a panel on “Practical & Legal Considerations for Communicating Your Message” – an event that no green communicator would want to miss (at least in my opinion). Personally, I think it’s a fabulous idea to get green media leaders together, and I trust William Acevedo from Wendel Rosen will do a great job moderating the panel, which includes the following leading local green media experts:

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