 We will next hear from Chris O'Brien who is the head of market development for Ehrlich and solar as soon as he is able to make his way up here since I called on him early. Thank you Carol well thanks I very much appreciate the opportunity to be here today and would also like to tell a couple of generally positive stories about solar. Let me begin with just a little bit of background about who are about our company because it's it's not a well-known name outside of Switzerland. We're a 100 year old Swiss company revenues about overall about three and a half billion dollars. The solar segment is one small piece of that probably the newest and smallest of six business segments but we have across all segments about 1500 employees in the US in Indiana Illinois Pennsylvania in North Carolina and but our solar segment today is relatively small so what do we do we're fundamentally it's a we're a technology company and our technology is we make the stuff that makes panels so if you will we make very good pizza ovens and a pizza and a PV panel is a pizza so we make the pizza ovens. We do that very quite well we invest a tremendous amount in innovation and technology over the last several years we've invested about 70 million dollars each year into improving our technology. The this we that our equipment produces thin film silicon PV panels. What we have done by continuing to invest has been to improve the competitiveness and the cost of production of making those panels to make PV and solar energy much more affordable for end customers. Examples we have just since 2008 the expected cost of making a panel with our standard equipment has reduced from a dollar 50 per watt by about 50 percent to about 70 cents per watt. The same piece of hardware basically the same set of hardware that a couple years ago made 60 megawatts per year now makes 120 megawatts per year just we get what we're doing fundamentally is bringing the smarts of the semiconductor industry the same people that have brought down the cost of iPads and flat screen TVs and brought that that same set of thinking and technology and experience with technology roadmaps into the PV industry. So we are I think what we have today we are funded a potential catalyst for very competitive new solar manufacturing we have strong we have customers across the globe. Today our customers are in Europe and in Asia there is a tremendous probably the strongest growth market force is in Asia. Important lesson important message is that that's not because labor is cheap. I think that's because really the policies to attract manufacturing have been excellent and stable and and have worked. I was in Germany last week at a trade show there I mean Manning mentioned the fact that the German market has outpaced the U.S. and again largely because the policies there have delivered a large market size and the and the scale is staggering I mean that the scale is roughly eight the installations in Germany left last year were roughly eight times the installations in the U.S. market U.S. market's been growing very quickly but a vision but Germany provides a vision of what stable policies can achieve. The trade show that I visited had 80,000 visitors there were roughly 14 exhibit halls each of which is probably the size of the Washington Convention Center. They were just staggering just to see the amount of the scale of the industry solar provides several times more of Germany's electricity than it does here in the U.S. and parts of Bavaria on a sunny day solar provides up to 30 can provide up to 30 percent of the power that's being delivered into the grid so it's it's it's really transformed the market there at the same time of an important part of the buzz there was that there were a couple things one is that people are seeing prices of PV coming down Manning mentioned earlier how low the prices are already they're expected to come down even further that's that's good news for end customers in all markets. Germans have achieved despite the fact that you know the wages are relatively high they've achieved costs of installing PV systems that are roughly half of what they are here so it's again just that scale matters and so we're optimistic that we can see solar continue to become more and more affordable with stable policies here. There is a strong interest and I think a consensus view there that the German or that the next big market to pop this is among a conference of global companies from Asia Europe U.S. that the U.S. is really the next big market to pop people are watching the market very carefully they're optimistic they but they need the stable policies in order to take the investments they've made and just build the market channels here build the production facilities to really build out the supply chain here in the U.S. I think that I'm sorry I think that one important open issue is you know the stability of the policies to some extent will dictate the amount of investment that comes to the U.S. I think you know as a company that is selling manufacturing equipment we have a strong interest in making sure that in having U.S. customers and there's the when we look at our turnkey factory and we run the numbers and say what if you if you put this factory in China if you put this factory in Eastern Germany or Eastern Germany if you put this factory in the U.S. I mean that the cost do not vary very much basically it's the differences in the noise and more largely offset by the cost of transporting panels from one place to the other. So I think the opportunities here to really create not only a strong end market for PV for solar energy here in the U.S. but really to create a stronger value chain using some of the newer and more innovative technologies. I think whether that happens or whether we become a large end market that imports a lot of most of that that product I think will depend to some extent on the stability of the policies going forward. One bit of last bit of good news I think that came out in the same report that Manning highlighted earlier the solar market insight report which is now available on on Cia's website is that the U.S. is actually that the manufacturing of panels in the U.S. grew last year quite quite significantly and an assessment that was done last year showed that the U.S. was actually a net exporter of affordable takes if you consider the entire value chain that's important. So some of the policies that were put in place to stimulate manufacturing investment worked in terms of providing incentives for investment but I would say particularly not only in module manufacturing but also in the production of some of the key materials that are used in making PV modules. So we have we have today a fairly good picture in terms of export in terms of our supply chain. It's it's fragile. It's fragile and and that they be because of the policies that are in place elsewhere to draw module manufacturers there. You know it's we need the continuation of that stable policy regime to make sure that the investments continue throughout the whole supply chain here in the U.S. And I'm going to stop there. I think I probably I probably ignored my one minute card because I think what's really critical to in terms of what you've been hearing from all three of these speakers terms of real jobs real economic growth and it really means you know investment in manufacturing here in this country and a development of domestic market as well as overseas. Question. It certainly has been. It has been but it's but it's changing very quickly so I think that the compensation rates currently for residential customers. I need to get the exact figure but it's something on the range of the rate of 50 percent higher than the retail electric rate for systems that are put on small roofs. Probably a probably about the same probably about the same premium for commercial customers. There's a there's a decided shift in Germany now towards steering solar installations towards favoring installations that are on rooftops. They've introduced policies increasingly that are more like the policies that we have here in the U.S. where customers are taking getting the full retail value of the electricity that they consume and then they they're given a incentive on top of on top of that. But the those feed and tariff rates are coming down markedly but that's part of the reason why that the systems of prices have come down. Also part of the reason why developers are looking to other markets including especially the U.S. as potential growth opportunities. OK. Over here. Policies are needed. So what are the key policies that are needed from for the solar industry to be posted in the U.S. Look around the globe in the way that people have done that there are different policies in pursuit. Germany obviously being one. But the one commonality is where the deployment of renewables is successful. You have a stable reliable policy that you put in place that the private sector can depend on. So if you want to look in the United States what are the challenges that you know from from visiting with our membership. The challenges that you have is finance. You have to have the capital up front to put the deploy the asset. But once you do you get good results. So in terms of the priorities for the solar industry in the legislative realm obviously retention of the underlying investment tax credit. It's proven to be extremely successful. It's doing what it's supposed to do in terms of job creation. You're seeing dramatic drop in costs and getting increased deployment. So when you put an incentive in place and looking at whether it's working or not it's pretty clear it's working and a lot of that has to do with reliability. Some other energy sectors have been plagued by on again off again tax incentives and you in the result is what you would expect in terms of their you know volatility in their marketplace. But beyond that when you look at what happened in you know when the stock market turned down in 2008 the economy is still not obviously fully recovered. You have a question of liquidity and efficiency with those tax credits. You have the underlying 1603 program that's administered by the Treasury Department that does a very nice job of allowing these partnerships that are often develop these projects. It allows you provides the liquidity that you need to make those deals work. That program has been extremely effective. Other some of the things that you know we're looking at they're important is an industry. Obviously they're regulatory requirements with citing issues. When you look at other you know other financing opportunities as well you know such as development of a green energy bank. The loan guarantee program has been particularly important to people who are doing concentrating solar power which is obviously a very promising technology as well. So there are a variety of things that we can do here in the United States to really allow us to reach our full potential because because echoing your sentiments here. The US if we do this right we're going to lead the world in solar deployment. When you look at our solar resources there's no reason that we shouldn't. We've got innovative companies that are doing amazing things across technologies whether it's commercial PV or whether it's CSP. It's all going to be effective. It's all going to work if we have the foresight and the vision to keep these policies in place and improve them. I might just mention CSP is concentrated solar power. OK. And in terms of the 1603 program. I believe that that right now would phase out the end of 20. It's a temporary provision. It expires at the end of this year. It was extended for one year. Right. And so right now there's kind of a big rush to get as many things in before that expires. And I think one of the things that that we have certainly learned as we've looked at policy issues across the globe and what we clearly saw in terms of the Germany experience was that the continuity of policy was terribly important in terms of investors in terms of manufacturing because in the United States too much our policy has looked like hiccups on a graph so that you've got it for a year maybe maybe two years and then you don't know whether it's going to be in again or whatever. And so it's been so tenuous that it has really kind of I think slowed us down from what the experience has been in other countries. And we've heard that over and over again from people in the private sector as well as from governments. I think that takes us to the end. I want to thank you very very much. These are really really important areas of economic growth for our country.