The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is adding new divisions to focus more aggressively on solar-plus-storage and solar manufacturing.
The new divisions are part of SEIA’s broader governance plan to have solar enter the 2020s as America’s leading source of new electricity generation. SEIA also is launching committees on energy storage and community solar and establishing a working group to reduce the soft costs of going solar.
“These changes in our structure emphasize the massive overhaul the electricity system is undergoing,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “Adding board seats for storage companies and manufacturers and creating policy committees to advance solar-plus-storage and community solar will help us build toward the Solar+ Decade and achieve our ambitious goals.”
SEIA has designated the next decade as the Solar+ Decade and set a target for solar to hit 20% of all electricity generation by 2030, up from 2.5% today. In order to do that, the trade group is building depth across the entire electricity value chain and collaborating with partners who will help it get there.
At the policy level, the board created an Energy Storage Committee and Community Solar Committee, which will serve as policy development incubators in coordination with SEIA’s Federal and State Policy Committees. Regarding energy storage, the board concluded that both a division and committee, focused on policy development, were appropriate.
The new divisions will focus on member education and information exchange. They will also have a representative on SEIA’s board of directors who will be elected from a slate of diverse candidates. This will build in a greater level of input into SEIA’s strategy and direction for both storage and manufacturing companies, the association says.
The board also approved the creation of a DG Permitting Working Group, which will lead SEIA’s work on the Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP) initiative. The working group will coordinate industry efforts to improve the process of permitting, inspecting and interconnecting customer-sited PV. Working group members will engage with external stakeholders, including code officials, policymakers and other advocacy organizations, to dramatically reduce the cost of deploying distributed generation PV systems.
