PHOTON International - The Photovoltaic Magazine

Scott Sklar, who headed up the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) for 13 years until stepping down in 2000 (see PI 10/2000, 23), has once again taken up the post – at least temporarily.

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Come-back and go: After Glenn Hamer (second from right) unexpectedly resigned as director at US SEIA, his predecessor Scott Sklar (right) has returned for an interim time until a replacement is found.

His April 30 appointment as interim acting executive director came a week after Glenn Hamer unexpectedly announced his resignation from the Washington, DC-based national PV and solar-thermal manufacturers trade association to work for First Solar LLC, the world's only commercial cell and module manufacturer using CdTe thin-film technology.

Sklar, who helped recruit Hamer for SEIA, again will be involved in a search for a new executive director. He was expecting to receive over a hundred applications by the closing date of May 21. A selection could be made by early July, with the new SEIA head probably starting during August – a slow time in Washington when Congress goes on recess. While lobbying will remain an important function, Sklar says his replacement also will be expected to grow the membership base, which currently includes nearly 200 companies through state SEIA chapters and affiliated contractors, and work on a possible merger with the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), a 108-member group including utilities and PV manufacturers, integrators, and installers (see PI 11/2003, p. 28). Sklar remains president of The Stella Group Ltd., a Washington, D.C.-based renewable energy consultancy.

No reason was given for Hamer's departure. But the former congressional aide to a Republican US representative from Arizona had staked a lot of his reputation on the ratification of solar components in a national energy bill pushed by the Bush administration, which failed to pass in Congress (see article, p. 62). In his new position at First Solar, which he started on May 1, Hamer will focus on strategic planning and business development initiatives. He will be located at the company's Arizona corporate office, not at the manufacturing facility in Ohio. First Solar, using all of its capacity, doubled its production to 3 MW last year. It is planning to increase capacity to 25 MW by 2005.