Sixteen thousand people are in San Diego, California attending Solar Power International – a record number of people in a record-breaking market. Despite jittery financial markets, the place is bustling and the mood is cautiously optimistic. I’m speaking with the leaders of big solar firms and startups while I’m here and wanted to pass on some notable quotes. Looking ahead to 2009 and beyond, Dick Swanson, SunPower’s President and CTO, sees the future “as a major challenge and a major opportunity. SunPower is well positioned with the premier solar product, a great sales channel, and a solid balance sheet. … There are going to be some winners and losers in the next few years and we are well positioned to be one of the winners.� “All of the major policy questions have been answered and they’ve been answered positively,� he added. Oerlikon builds manufacturing equipment for amorphous silicon and micromorph tandem solar panels and times are good. More than 400,000 solar panels have been built on its equipment and Chris O'Brien, Oerlikon’s Head of Market Development, sees the company’s system “helping our customers reach grid parity by 2010 and enabling PPAs at competitive prices." Regarding the crisis in the debt markets, he added: “Once the dust settles, solar financing will be regarded as a proven high-quality investment and one of the winners in the flight to quality.� GreenVolts is a concentrated solar startup that has quickly distinguished itself in this rapidly moving market. Its low-profile CPV system is already being deployed by PG&E in a 2-MW installation near Tracy, California. Stephen Smith, Director of Project Operations at GreenVolts, sees 2008 and 2009 as the years “they prove the technology with the Tracy GV-1 deployment as the proving ground. The market is taking off and we want to be the number one company in this space.� More interviews and quotes are on the way.

You'll hear this officially soon, but Elon Musk, one of the founders of Tesla Motors, is taking over as CEO. Ze'ev Drori, the CEO who took over for Martin Eberhard last year, is becoming vice chairman. Layoffs are also expected. Musk will become the third CEO of the company. Tesla began shipping Roadsters earlier this year and is now trying to come out with a fully electric sedan toward the end of 2010. The sedan, called Model S, will come out at the same time as the Chevy Volt. The Volt uses a little gas – a gas generator inside the car charges the battery while driving – while the Model S will use none. The Model S, however, will cost around $60,000, or $20,000 or so more than the Volt. The difference in the price in part can be attributed to the cost of the larger batteries fully electric cars need and the mass manufacturing know-how that GM has. UPDATE: Tesla has formally announced the changes. Along with swapping CEOs, it has also said that the Model S will be delayed until around mid-2011. Thus, Tesla will follow GM--yuck--barring further changes at GM. Musk is also the fourth CEO if you count interim head Michael Marks. Musk has repeatedly said that he wants to spend less time at Tesla so that he can concentrate on Space-X, his rocketry company. So much for that. Musk had a somewhat acrimonious relationship with Eberhard toward the end, in part because of repeated delays to the release of the Roadster. Drori was able to stem many of the delays.