SmallCapInvestor.com reporter Jennifer Schonberger is reporting from the 20th Roth Capital Partners Annual OC Growth Stock Conference this week in Dana Point, Calif. The conference features presentations from more than 300 small-cap companies.

Akeena Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKNS), manufacturer of solar power systems, said in an information session at the Roth OC Growth Stock Conference in Dana Point, Calif. Thursday that it expects to achieve GAAP profitability next year and expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to break even by the fourth quarter of this year.

“We have a plan to profitability,” said Steve Daniel, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Akeena Solar. “As supply of silicon outstrips demand, we believe we’ll be able to drive more profit downstream. We’re seeing this already with Andalay in the last few months and we believe the overabundance will help the market place [for solar systems].”

Andalay, is what Akeena Solar calls its premier line of solar panels. The company says these panels improve on conventional solar panels by including built-in wiring, grounding and racking designed to provide better rooftop performance for consumers.

Akeena Solar has simplified the input, installation and labor costs associated with selling and installing solar systems, according to Daniel— driving down its cost of goods sold by lowering manufacturing and production costs of Andalay solar panels.

On an industry level, Daniel says according to financial services group Collin Stewart, the industry will be break-even for capacity and that in the future, capacity will exceed demand, helping to drive prices down in the module area.

Daniel said he thinks the price of a module will go down to $2, from $3.75 for 2008, which coupled with the abundance of silicon, will create a low price module for Akeena that will be able to drive the same kind of profit margin at $5 per watt from currently $8.40 per watt. The executive also noted that lower prices for modules will most likely enable Akeena to sell in every state in the country and Europe because the prices are very competitive.

A decline in polysilicon prices could also help the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company’s path to profitability. Daniel said Akeena thinks there will be a decrease and that that decrease in polysilicon prices could be soon.

“We get a sense that could be coming pretty soon,” said Daniel. “We think that by 2010, we’ll be down toward the $2 per watt range, but we don’t really feel we have to get the $2 per watt to get to that break-even point. We have a path to profitability that assumes some decrease in polysilicon prices, but it’s not that sharp. If we go down to $2 per watt we actually think we can become profitable earlier.”