I just love shows like the just-completed MIT Energy Conference, for all the opportunities to learn in such a short space, and often directly from people actively studying in the field. Another such opportunity arises this week at NESEA's Building Energy '09.

Here's some orts left over from my walk through the poster session Friday night and the four-plus hours I was able to spend on Saturday...

* d-lite.org is a new website, still being populated but open for visiting, whose purpose is ...

to facilitate the exploration and selection of such systems for those in the design and research fields so as to engage them early on to think about daylight and solar radiation for a better integration of sustainability and energy concerns in the built environment.

Search parameters include new or retrofit, less glare or deeper light, static or dynamic, etc., — in some cases with deeper subdivisions. The site is nonprofit.

* Several of Mass.'s energy-tech stalwarts had displays Friday night, including... 

• EnerNOC, which had an army of folks on hand, and whose table swamped Friday night whenever I looked. Saturday, their Tim Healy represented the company quite well in the session on managing demand, including his sharing the cost comparison of achieving 100 megawatts by building a peaking power plant ($60 million-$100 million) vs. achieving that amount through demand response ($900,000). Who's got an easier sell that than? I've written about them several times, including in E Magazine and in GreenSource.
• Philips Color Kinetics, which I've also written about, and in a previous endeavor, commissioned a story on. I asked a cheerful fellow at its table my standard LED question: So when are we going to go from promise to fulfillment with LEDs? I expected "three-to-five years," but he was a little more substantive: In some limited applications, it's already here, but it's likely to advance is niches, rather than all at once. I gotta say: I'm impatient for them — great promise, slow to be realized.
• Konarka. Them, I've only heard about, but haven't had a reason to call. The little I grasped during a three-minute tutorial: They are able to print solar cells on film in an all-organic process (the only one), but so far, efficiency is only at 5 percent, vs. about 30 for silicon, and the cells are good only for 5 years instead of for 20. They're good in low light. Applications include backpacks that can charge your cell and/or iPod, and they're reaching out to tent makers.

* Though they're still pretty new, I would add Next Step Living to that group; they're the folks who did our recent energy audit. I tried to say hello to Geoff Chapin, CEO, several times, but every time I glanced over, he was engaged in yet another conversation, with someone else on deck. I did get in to chat with Clayton Schuller, though; we've been in touch about the next level of work they might do for us.

* Bill Staby, a friend from Boston Green Drinks, was there representing Resolute Marine Energy, of which he is CEO. They are pursuing tidal-energy technology.

* I spoke to a fellow about his topic, still in the lab stage, which was titled, "Fully transparent tandem solar cells consisting of printed quantum dot films." My takeaway was that the process makes cells at room temperature, making their manufacture much cheaper, and therefore their efficiency less of an economic issue. I'm fairly sure this links to the work, which isn't exactly journalism-level sourcing, but is worth sharing just for the idea.

* I was surprised to know so many people there. I am geeky about stats in general, so of course I started keeping a list. Between presenters and faces in the crowd, I saw almost a dozen people I knew. Helped me to think there's community around these issues, and that I'm a member of it. A lot of the folks I saw in the crowd are acquaintances from Boston Green Drinks. We definitely have community there, and you're invited to join.