I just returned from NAED’s National Electrical Leadership Summit in Hollywood, Florida where I found evidence that the current economic and political state of the nation has important players thinking about exploring new directions their business models:

15 renewable energy companies (manufacturers, re-distributors and integrators/consultants for PV solar and wind) were in attendance to learn about opportunities with traditional full-line electrical distributors and these distributors were equally interested in opportunities with these product and service suppliers.  After 4 days of meetings (group and one-to-one), seminars, educational sessions and events of various kinds with the 70+ distributors in attendance, my own “vest pocket” survey of a number of both renewable energy companies and distributors showed an keen interest on the part of both groups that I have not seen in the past two years or so of my work on renewable energy.