Applied Materials, the largest equipment provider to the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry in the world, organized an Innovation Summit in May at the Applied Materials Solar Technology Center (STC) in Xi’an to foster a deeper relationship with more than 200 customers across China and Asia.

Key subjects discussed during the summit focused on technology, innovation and cooperation. Applied Materials introduced its PV research scientists, engineers and field support specialists and helped clients learn more about the company’s new equipment technologies and process innovations in wafering, cell manufacturing and factory automation.

In his key-note presentation, Dr. Charles Gay, president of Applied Solar at Applied Materials, Inc., predicted that the next five years will provide an opportunity for China to expand its use of solar energy. “By 2018, grid parity will be met in China, two years ahead of the United States,” he said. Grid parity is the point at which electricity generated from PV solar sources is equal to or cheaper than that from conventional sources.

That projection instantly stimulated a strong reaction from the audience, which included more than 32 key national mainstream business and solar PV trade media invited and flown-in, as well as local key news media. Xie Dan, clean tech writer at Global Entrepreneur, blogged what she just heard from her iPhone, quoting Dr. Gay as saying that by 2020, 78 nations in the world will reach grid parity, and for China the time threshold is 2018. By then new PV installation globally will have reached a capacity of 400GW, the number last year was 18GW. Xie has 2,600 fans following her in weibo, the equivalent of Twitter in China.

During the summit Applied Materials also announced the largest single order it had ever received from China’s largest producer of polysilicon wafers by output, representing more than 2.5 GW of energy capacity. To inspire the next generation of innovators, Applied Materials also announced the Clean Tech Competition, a design contest for 13-18 year olds living in the San Francisco Bay Area, the US and Xi’an, China. This program was developed in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association and the Chinese Association of Children’s Science Teachers.

Thanks to a well-designed and executed media outreach program by Ketchum, the event generated immediate and home-run reports from leading business and news publications such as China Daily, 21st Century Business Herald and Economic Observer, as well as local titles such as Xi’an Daily and Xi’an TV, hitting the key message buttons for the event as well as Applied Materials’ key positioning for China. A total of 50 stories and reports were generated along with hundreds of online pickups and a big buzz in the blogosphere.