Solar Energy in the U.S., Run-of-River Hydro in Brazil

I got home last night from a couple of days in San Francisco at the InterSolar show, an event whose purpose is to promote the numerous technologies that surround humankind’s efforts to power our planet from our local star.  And speaking of star, the event, with the enormous crowds of dedicated industry professionals that attend it, gets more stellar every year.

This year’s event had its share of distractons, however, like the World Cup.  The usual hubbub in the middle of Tuesday disappeared almost completely as a huge percentage of solar energy enthusiasts found a way to watch Germany trounce Brazil, to the surprise of everyone, and to the utter horror of the fans of the host country.

As I’m sure everyone knows by now, soccer is such an enormous part of the Brazilian culture, and tempers were so high about the government’s extravagance in building the venues for the games, that it’s likely that the humiliating defeat will usher the current administration out of power, and that a new (more pro-business?) one will replace it.

Is that good for people like me, who have chips riding on renewable energy projects (especially, run-of-river hydro) in Brazil?  I’m not sure. The optimist in me says that more business needs more energy  The pessimist says that any change takes time to sort itself out.  I guess we’ll see.