Paul Savage at the Green Building Power Forum

Last week Paul Savage, Nextek CEO, participated in the Green Building Power Forum put on by the Darnell Group, this year out in Santa Ana, CA.  It’s the third GBPF; the first was in Anaheim, the second in Tokyo.  While the attendance was flat (apparently a good sign amidst the economic doldrums) it was an indicator of swift movement in the DC power realm.  The EMerge Alliance was a sponsor along with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Roal Electronics from Italy.  Big news was the bump in attendance from Japanese corporations.  Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu, NTT Facilities and JETIA were all there, following their successful conference in Tokyo a few months ago, where it was announced that the country was adopting a 380 volt DC standard for data center applications.  Now – in the Japanese press anyway – several demos of DC single family homes are underway.  The US had just one building materials manufacturer in attendance.  We have plans to build a DC model home soon with some top-drawer US partners, hopefully some collaboration with our Japanese colleagues and some German outfits that have cut the path on modern passive strategies for ultra efficient building design.