Well, it’s really hard to believe that we are less than 50 days away from the BuildingEnergy 2013 conference. While a whole lot of activity has already taken place, a lot more is in the works to make the rubber meet the road.

As a long time renewable energy advocate and practitioner, I have seen a good many changes in this conference, and in NESEA as an organization. Once upon a time, the BuildingEnergy conference was known as “Renew”, and until the spring of 2012, NESEA’s magazine was called the Northeast Sun (now called the BuildingEnergy Magazine). Despite these changes, assuming there’s no room for energy folks like you and I would be a mistake – NESEA has its roots as a solar energy organization, and in this community, energy absolutely matters (after all, it is 50% of the conference title).

Those original conferences were heavy on solar domestic hot water (SDHW) and some early passive solar homes that came into prominence as the government support for SDHW disappeared in the early 1980′s. Then, photovoltaics were mostly the realm of the few real pioneers like our own Steven Strong who made the cover story of the September
1981 Popular Science. We learned from him and many others and then, as now, the NESEA conferences were the place to go to learn all the latest and greatest before it went mainstream.

So what’s in store for energy folks at BuildingEnergy? Plenty. Track six, on Renewable Energy, promises to uphold that tradition of providing cutting edge information. But even before that track gets underway, the associated workshops on
Tuesday also explore such topics as Building Passive House Homes,  WUFI Passive Modeling  and Commercial Passive House Design Principles.

Skills for Building Resilient Communities, in which I am a speaker, dovetails with the overall theme of “resiliency” will have a heavy dose of how renewable energy sources can provide value by maintaining livability under the most extreme conditions. I am particularly pleased to team with noted solar architect Don Watson, sustainability metrics guru Maureen Hart and Alex Wilson, former NESEA Executive Director and founder of Environmental Building News. We will offer participants the information and resources needed to understand resiliency to aid them to broaden their professional practices.

The Renewables Track, itself, is under the able guidance of Bill Stillinger who began in the field as a utility R&D manager and went on to become General Manager of a PV installers coop, PV Squared. The sessions he has brought forward will feature an array of interests some of which also reflect the resilience theme and include Maintaining a Secure and Resilient Grid and Stand-Alone vs. Grid-Connected PV Systems, which build on a 1997 conference that looked at some of these same issues from an insurance industry perspective.

The former session will examine the need for a more robust electric grid due to the many natural and man-made threats and stresses on the current system. It will look in detail at microgrids from the perspectives of developers, utilities and owners who’s stars do not always align but may have enough common goals to provide a workable business model that is profitable to all.

Many prospective PV owners, and even building professionals, are not fully aware that the vast majority of the PV systems in place at this time will not provide power for their owners during an electric grid outage. The Stand-Alone vs. Grid-Connected PV Systems session will provide information on the differences in the types of systems that can provide power and those that can’t under those conditions and some real life experiences of owners. The session will also explore the current state of battery technology and future advances in electric storage that will make operation possible under all conditions.

Other sessions in this track will explore the state of renewable energy markets in the region and beyond, the latest developments coming up in wind and solar energy and renewable energy credits markets and net metering. Understanding these will become increasingly important to architects, builders, developers and others wishing to produce zero net energy buildings.

In all, Track 6 is going to be a great part of an excellent conference. Sign up early and often.