After a year of preparation, the SNEC International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference and Exhibition will begin today at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

The world's largest in the industry, the three-day event has once again broken records with 2,200 exhibitors from five continents displaying their latest products across 200,000 square meters of exhibition space.

The impressive lineup of exhibitors, experts and activities makes the expo a global event as the world's most authoritative PV experts and industry entrepreneurs gather together for close conversations.

Exhibitors include international PV giants and well-known enterprises such as Suntech Power, Yingli Green Energy, GCL, JA Solar, LDK Solar, REC, SMA, Hanwha-SolarOne, OCI and Dupont.

Suntech will showcase its "Pluto" technology, while Yingli will put a spotlight on the World Cup Trophy. Trina will bring its new Honey PV panels, SMA will introduce its sister enterprises to the public and Dupont will show the industry its latest achievements.

One of the keynote speakers at the conference is Martin Green, the executive research director of the ARC Photovoltaics Center of Excellence at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Green has been called "the father of modern photovoltaics".

Other speakers include Reinhold Buttgereit, secretary-general of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, Rhone A. Resch, chairman and CEO of the Solar Industry Association, Charles Gay, president of Applied Solar and Applied Materials, Inc and co-founder of the Greenstar Foundation, and Makoto Konagai, chairman of the Japan Solar Energy Society and professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The PV conference has eight sessions ranging from cutting-edge PV technologies to a solar leaders dialog, smart grid technologies, market analysis and overseas investment.

Other events include conferences on climate change, how to do business in the US and a Sino-German cooperation workshop on photovoltaics, as well as sessions on the cross-Straits million solar roofs initiative, solar technology in China and Nordic countries, and understanding US anti-dumping tariffs.

Those interested in attending the conference can log onto the official website www.snec.org.cn for registration. Visitors can also register onsite by submitting two business cards.