Mike Splinter

California will miss its 20% RPS target in 2010, and the very issues that caused the state to miss its 2010 goal will persist as we slog toward a 33% RPS goal by 2020. So say some folks that ought to know.

Last night, Climate One and the Commonweatlh Club of California hosted a roundtable with four highly successful professionals, each dedicated to achieving California’s aggressive RPS goals while also establishing a robust clean tech industry that creates and keeps jobs in the state of California. On stage was (L to R) a pro-renewable chairman of the California Public Utility Commission, Mike Peevey, an executive from a progressive utility, Nancy McFadden of PG&E, a CEO from the #1 solar capital equipment company, Mike Splinter of Applied Materials, a practical environmentalist, Bob Epstein of Environmental Entrepreneurs, and, no, that’s not an oxymoron, as well as moderator, Greg Dalton founder of Climate One.More

Applied Materials' Chairman and CEO Mike Splinter met with several high level government officials on his recent trip to China. He met with the Minister of Commerce, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and senior members of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) to engage the Chinese leadership on policy initiatives that would expand the deployment of solar energy in China.More

It’s been busy at Applied Materials from a Government Affairs perspective. Not only did we host a delegation from the Italian government, we also hosted a delegation of six members of the European Parliament.

The delegation was led by The Hon Dr. Werner Langen and consisted primarily of members of the German CDU/CSU party.More

Appropriately, it was a warm, sunny afternoon in Washington, D.C. as the 2009 Solar Decathlon officially kicked off yesterday with a full color guard ceremony complete with several hundred solar devotees and the Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu.

The 20 student teams were excited though a few could be found napping, finally getting a little down time after days of round-the-clock work.More

As part of our kick-off activities for this year’s Solar Decathlon, Applied Materials hosted a panel discussion on scaling renewable energy at the National Press Club in Washington D.C yesterday. The panel included reps from Pacific Gas and Electric Company(PG&E), Bechtel, Green Strategies, the Bipartisan Policy Center as well as Applied Materials Chairman and CEO Mike Splinter.

The discussion focused on what concrete steps this country needs to take in order to realize the promise of renewable energy. The number one take-away from the conversation: Policy Certainty.More