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At the joint 3rd PV world and IEA-PVPS conference, dubbed the»World PV Epoch in Osaka,« Japanese companies and scientists will show one and all how they successfully conquered the PV throne. It should be worth a trip to experience it live and in person.

	© Osaka International Convention Center
The newly-constructed Osaka International Convention Center will host the 3rd World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-3) in May.

When the doors of the Grand Cube at the newly-built Osaka International Convention Center open for the visitors of the 3rd World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-3) on May 12, Japan will finally receive the attention it deserves from the global scientific community and PV industry. After all, Japan is the world's leading PV nation.

About every four years the WCPEC combines the three big PV conferences, which are held in Asia, America and Europe every 18 months. This year's event in Osaka also will include the 13th Asian PV Science and Engineering conference (PVSEC); the 30th Institute of Electrical and Electronics PV Specialists Conference (IEEE-PVSC30); and the 18th European PV Solar Energy Conference (EU-PSEC).

The first PV world conference, held in Hawaii in Dec. 1994, attracted about 900 participants, a number that more than doubled at the second world conference in Vienna, Austria, in 1998. That conference was attended by nearly 1,900 individuals from 74 different countries. The organizers of the WCPEC-3 anticipate»only« 1,500 visitors. But that is still a record number for a PV conference held in Asia, since attendance will be boosted as a large share of visitors stream in from overseas. Despite Japan's gigantic market volume, the Asian-Pacific PV conferences traditionally have a much lower attendance rate than their European counterparts. The last PVSEC in 2001, for instance, which took place in Korea, attracted just 400 people, and the PVSEC before that one in Sapporo, Japan in 1999 was attended by 705 people. For contrast, the EU-PSEC in Munich was attended by 1,600 people.

Although the 830 scientific contributions (lectures and posters) to be presented in Osaka by scientists from 50 countries constitute another record for Japanese PV conferences, it's still rather small when compared with European events– the Munich conference in 2002 alone had 930 presentations. But the quality of the papers and presentations at the Asian events generally has been much higher than in Europe. Thus it remains to be seen if the Japanese world conference has lowered its selection standards to achieve this record-breaking number. In any case, we have perused the conference program and will provide you on the following pages with a thin-red line through the jungle of events and speakers.

The 3rd World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion

May 11-18
Grand Cube
Osaka International Convention Center
Osaka, Japan

Conference
Presentations on
May 11: from 9:00 am to 18:00
May 12, 13, 14: from 8:00 am to 18:00
May 15: from 8:00 am to 15:30

Conference registration fee

¥40,000 ($338) by April 30
¥50,000 ($423) after April 30
Students: ¥20,000 ($169)

Industry exhibition
May 14 to 18:
Daily from 9:30 am to 17:00

Industry exhibition entry fee
Free

Registration
c/o EC Inc.
2-1-809, Mita 3-chome, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-0073, Japan
phone: +81-3-5444-2891
fax: +81-3-5444-2892
wcpec3@ec-inc.co.jp
www.wcpec3.org

As if there were not enough records being broken already, this conference exhibition appears to be real big. In contrast to the Korean event in 2001, where a paltry 15 companies exhibited, and a rather small turnout of 34 exhibitors for the Sapporo conference, the WCPEC-3 in Osaka will gather together an impressive 111 exhibitors, among them 66 Japanese companies, NGOs and governmental organizations. It seems, the entire domestic PV industry from house builders to module companies will be on hand. In fact, many other exhibitors wanted to join the event, but the conference organizers failed to reserve enough space. The PV exhibition hall already was booked by December, which left several leading international PV companies out in the cold. We asked all the exhibitors to send us information on the new products they intend to introduce at Osaka. Their answers are presented in the following pages.

The industry exhibition, which is open to the public free of charge, will offer several goodies for layman. One of these special presentations is the display of the first pn-junction solar cell, developed by scientists at US Bell Laboratories in April 1954. Organizers hope to attract a crowd of 10,000 with further attractions such as games or installation workshops (only in Japanese). The exhibition will start two days after the conference begins and last two days longer until Sunday, to give non-professionals a chance to visit the grounds over the weekend.

The third and final event wrapping up the»World PV Epoch in Osaka« is the 10th anniversary meeting of the International Energy Agency's PV Power System Programme (IEA-PVPS)– an initiative that has helped to spread the PV gospel, and has provided an important international discussion forum dedicated to surmounting market barriers. Held on the first two days of the week following the WCPEC-3, the conference will summarize PV achievements by the program's different working groups, and will discuss the future of the IEA-PVPS.

So if you count yourself among the ranks of the international PV industry, then take a ride to Osaka and enter the doors of the Grand Cube into the wonderful world of WCPEC-3. You won't have a better opportunity to learn about and from the world's leading PV country for 12 more years– when the next PV world conference is held in Japan.