Last Monday Applied Materials celebrated the summer solstice – the day the sun shines in the northern hemisphere for the longest period of time all year – by hosting a five day series of online conversations via Twitter on various aspects of solar energy.

These one-hour conversations featured a different expert each day to discuss various topics including solar energy legislation, utility scale solar, the solar industry in China and the benefits of solar installations, to name a few.

Below are links to recaps of each day’s speaker and topic as featured in the Twitterstorm:

Monday, June 21

Mike Dabbs, Director, Government Affairs

Topic: Comprehensive climate and energy legislation. Mike discussed how the current regulatory environment in the U.S. is impacting solar energy legislation.

Tuesday, June 22

Dr. Charlie Gay, President, Applied Solar

Topic: The history and future of solar. Charlie discussed the progress made in the solar industry, the current state of technology and the future of photovoltaics.

Wednesday, June 23

Bruce Klafter, Managing Director, EH&S, Corporate Sustainability

Topic: Benefits of solar installations. Bruce discussed solar installations and how they fit into our overall sustainability strategy and gave real life examples and information on Applied’s solar facilities around the world.

Thursday, June 24

Rob DeLine, Managing Director, Solar Marketing

Topic: Utility scale solar. Rob discussed the positive economic impact of utility scale solar and its potential to create jobs and manufacturing ecosystems in communities across the world.

Friday, June 25

Chris Brown, China Energy Consultant

Topic: The solar industry in China. Chris provided his thoughts on the future of solar in China.

To view these and other related topics search #SummerSun on Twitter. We encourage you to follow @Applied_Blog on Twitter for the latest updates.

Also in observance of the summer solstice, Applied Materials conducted its second annual survey to gauge the public’s current knowledge and opinion of solar energy usage in the U.S.

Survey Results

According to the survey, Americans are strongly supportive of integrating renewable energy sources into the country’s overall energy mix:

• Consistent with last year’s results, two-thirds of Americans strongly agree that solar energy needs to have a greater role in the country’s energy output.
• More Americans are willing to invest in renewable energy (67% versus 53%); 49% would be willing to pay $5 or more per month if their utility company increased its use of renewable energy, compared to 35% in 2009.
• Three-quarters of respondents felt it was very important that the current U.S. energy bill address increasing renewable energy (75%) and decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil (73%).