Many of those walking around the Energy Fair in bucolic Custer, Wisconsin, were regulars who had attended many previous events. But for us first-timers, the down-home get-together of thousands of activists, businesspeople and just plain folks was a refreshingly grasssroots affair.
Celebrating its 27th year, the annual fair put on by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) gathered together an interesting cross-section of people and companies dedicated to clean energy and sustainable living. The program featured several keynote speakers, hundreds of workshops and tented company exhibits, solar home tours in the area, green building demos, a fun remote-control minicar demolition derby, musical entertainment, whimsical arts and crafts, and plenty of food and drink.
While there were several familiar name-brand solar firms represented among the exhibitors and attendees—Kyocera, QuickMount, Iron Ridge, Soligent, for example—most of the industry participants were from local or regional outfits. In addition to showing the flag as a sponsor of the fair, the Inovateus Solar team was especially keen on talking with existing customers and establishing relations with potential new installer partners for our supply business.
We were pleasantly surprised to run across some solar pioneers at the fair, such as David Katz. I also enjoyed chatting with several friendly fairgoers who had already “gone solar” and were planning to expand their systems, add energy storage, or even go off-grid.
We’ve put together a photo album from our visit to the Energy Fair that we hope will give you a flavor of this event. Enjoy!
By Mauricio Anon, brand ambassador, Inovateus Solar
