PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

First Solar‘s Glenn Hamer leaves industry for Republican Party

Glenn Hamer, former executive director of the US lobby group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) who in April 2004 became head of strategic planning and business development at First Solar LLC, has left the Arizona-headquartered manufacturer of CdTe thin-film modules to work as executive director of the Republican Party in Arizona.

	© Norbert Michalke for photon-pictures.com
The call of politics: Glenn Hamer has left First Solar and lobby association ASPv to become executive director of the Republican Party in Arizona.

For Hamer, the move marks a return to the realm of party politics as well as a reunion with his former boss Matt Salmon, a member of the US House of Representatives from 1994 to 2000, who is the current chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. »If you‘ve been bitten by the political bug, it is the sickness that never goes away,« he says. Hamer was a member of Salmon‘s staff, and helped craft renewable energy policies in the House of Representatives‘ renewable energy caucus, of which Salmon was a founding member. In 2001, Hamer went on to head SEIA, where he remained until 2004, before being succeeded by current executive director Rhone Resch. He has also served as a member of the Western Governors Association‘s Solar Task Force (see PI 10/2005, p. 28). In early 2005, Hamer joined Jan McFarland, the former head of the California chapter of SEIA, and others in creating a new solar energy trade association and lobby group called Americans for Solar Power (ASPv).

In his new position, Hamer‘s first priority will be to help the Arizona Republican Party win seats in the Nov. 2006 midterm elections. Hamer says his departure comes at a time when solar energy‘s outlook is excellent at both the federal level and in the states with SEIA, ASPv, and other groups leading the charge. The industry »is truly blessed with the people it has to promote its agenda,« he says, adding that solar energy is an »unstoppable force.« Moreover, he believes that thin film companies such as First Solar will capture an increasing market share in the next several years as the shortage in silicon feedstock affects the availability of conventional c-Si modules.