I have followed Evergreen Solar (ESLR) for a while. They are headquartered in Marlboro, Massachusetts. I bought some stock a while back because, well, because it appeared to be of great value -- a great booming US solar company. Like some other solar companies, their stock has tanked, big! They must really be screwing up. I wish someone would take a step back and determine what to do with this company. Maybe that new solar manufacturing plant they just invested in should have been in the US. I think I could find a few people in this country who would love to work there....
Last week I was in the Bay Area for a cool conference on LED lighting. This is another industry that is growing astonishizly fast (and for good reason). Getting out of the cold here in the northeast was nice. It has been a while since I had been to California. The solar presence there is really amazing. I saw tons of solar, just driving around Palo Alto, Cupertino and Redwood City. I saw lots of PV, but also several solar hot water systems. So many residential arrays have been constructed, and the commercial ones I saw, like on the (new to me) building at De Anza College makes a strong statement. But then, they all do. Besides seeing solar panels and collectors everywhere, I saw three beautiful passive-solar homes. Someday, I hope to be able to build one of my own.