Clean Power Finance, KACO, NREL, SolarCity, Solectria and TÜV Rheinland to speak at industry networking lunch hosted by the SunSpec Alliance and supported by members.

San Francisco, September 11, 2013 – The SunSpec Alliance announced today its sponsorship of two solar standards update sessions at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum West (REFF-West) on September 16th and 17th in San Francisco. The events will be held as part of the daily networking lunch attended by a projected 380 finance, services and renewable energy industry executives.

At sessions lead by the SunSpec Alliance, senior representatives of Clean Power Finance, KACO, NREL, SolarCity, Solectria and TÜV Rheinland will update the industry on their efforts to accelerate standards adoption associated with solar finance and to invite others to join them to reduce finance costs, enable securitization and expand the solar market.

"The standards train is leaving the station," said Thomas Tansy, Chairman of the SunSpec Alliance. "At REFF-West, we will hear leading executives describe their company's adoption of contract and performance assessment standards, and learn about new initiatives that are driving down the cost of distributed energy finance. It is time for the rest of the industry—owners, developers and financiers of residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems—to get on board now."

Featured speaker Michael Mendelsohn of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will also describe the growth of the Solar Access to Public Capital initiative, announce new delivered elements of the program, and review upcoming milestones of the group's securitization efforts.

To conclude each session, the SunSpec Alliance, a developer of de facto information standards for distributed energy, will announce the immediate availability of the Open Solar Performance and Reliability Clearinghouse (oSPARC) and invite plant owners to enroll their systems in the service. oSPARC fills the actuarial data void that hinders underwriters from characterizing solar risk by establishing a nationwide network of solar PV power plants. These plants report daily to answer the question of how solar PV technology performs over the long term. Information about enrolling in oSPARC can be found at http://www.sunspec.org/osparc/.

About SunSpec Alliance

The SunSpec Alliance is a trade alliance of developers, manufacturers, service providers, and others, together pursuing information standards for the distributed energy industry. SunSpec standards address most operational aspects of PV and other distributed energy power plants on the smart grid—including residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems—thus reducing cost, promoting innovation, and accelerating industry growth. Over 60 organizations are members of the SunSpec Alliance, including global leaders from Asia, Europe, and North America. Membership is open to corporations, non-profits, and individuals. For more information about the SunSpec Alliance, or to download SunSpec specifications at no charge, please visit www.sunspec.org.

If you would like to attend REFF-West and would like a 20% discount, register now with discount code: SPT20SSP to take advantage of this exclusive deal.