Thoughts on Solar

We are fans of SEIA, the Solar Energy Industry Association, as we believe that they do important work lobbying on behalf of solar in Washington, D.C.  But a blog post by Chet Henry over at Red, Green & Blue titled, “Who has the best job in solar? Bet it’s not you,” (h/t SolarWakeup) had us spewing our coffee in disbelief—they are paying him what???

It turns out that SEIA is paying its President/CEO, Rhone Resch, $786,000 per year—to say nothing of a gym membership and guaranteed first class air travel.  Say what?

Now this is not an attack on Mr. Resch, whom I respect.  But seriously, SEIA, what the heck are you doing?  Julia Hamm, who heads up SEPA, the Solar Electric Power Association (which tries to get electric utilities to adopt solar-friendly policies) gets paid roughly a third of Resch, at $286,000.  Sorry, but there is no way Resch is worth three times what Hamm is.  Worse still, according to the blog post, SEIA’s records reveal three other executive women at SEIA, none of whom makes more than a third of what Resch makes.

Frankly, we have been concerned for some time about SEIA’s dues structure which is disproportionately high for small revenue solar companies, and is one of the chief reasons that 80% of solar companies aren’t members.  Indeed, we are no longer members as it simply didn’t seem like a worthwhile investment for our all too finite capital.  Dumping nearly 800 G’s into one man’s salary, however, is no way to say to small installation companies, “we represent you and want you to participate.”

SEIA has noted that there are more than 140,000 people in this country working in the solar industry.  I wonder how many of them are getting paid what SEIA is paying its President?  SEIA has said that there are more than 5,000 solar companies in this country.  I wonder how many of their President/CEOs are getting paid anywhere near what SEIA is paying its CEO?

I simply don’t buy the notion that you need to pay someone that kind of salary to attract the talent needed to do the job.  After all, Ms. Hamm has to hobnob with the heads of IOUs who make 10 times as much as she does, but she can do it for nearly half a million dollars less than SEIA is paying out.

Time for reform at SEIA.

Does the Solyndra failure mean, as some would assert, that the entire DoE loan guarantee program is a scam that puts taxpayer dollars at undue risk?  Hardly.  The vast majority of the projects approved under the program present very little risk to taxpayers. So why don’t people know that?

We came across a couple of items today that seem to put this in some perspective.  The first was a story on NPR that outlined Republican opposition to the loan program even though 16 of the 28 projects that it supported already have in place long-term energy sales contracts - making them nearly risk free.  Nevertheless, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fl), now opposes the program entirely (although he backed it when it originated during the Bush Administration) and he believes that we simply “cannot compete with the Chinese” in solar panels and wind turbines.

Here’s the entire story - it is worth a listen:

By way of contrast, the second piece that came to our attention today is from Rhone Resch, head of the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA).  Resch was sending out an update to the SEIA membership - Run on Sun is a proud SEIA member - sharing with them a blog post he received from Dan Pfeiffer, Communications Director at the White House.  Drawing a clear distinction from Rep. Stearns, Pfeiffer cited Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s admonition over this past weekend:

The United States faces a choice today: Will we sit on the sidelines and fall behind or will we play to win the clean energy race? Some say this is a race America can’t win. They’re ready to wave the white flag and declare defeat… Others say this is a race America shouldn’t even be in. They say we can’t afford to invest in clean energy. I say we can’t afford not to.

It’s not enough for our country to invent clean energy technologies – we have to make them and use them too. Invented in America, made in America, and sold around the world – that’s how we’ll create good jobs and lead in the 21st century.

Secretary Chu is absolutely right and it should be a matter of pride for all Americans that we not only compete, but that we win this competition.  After all, Solyndra notwithstanding, we are competing successfully right now.  Consider:

• America’s solar industry accounts for approximately 100,000 jobs right now - despite intermittant rebate programs and lots of bad press.
• The U.S. is a net global exporter of solar technology with $5.6 billion in exports and an overall positive trade balance of $1.8 billion.
• We have enjoyed such positive results despite other governments providing far more lucrative incentives to their renewable energy industries than what the U.S. industry has received.  Indeed, China alone has offered its solar manufacturers $30 billion in government financing - vastly exceeding the total U.S. investment.

The solution to our problems is not to throw up our hands in despair and slink from the playing field.  Rather, it is time to redouble our efforts and make the sort of investments that will really help our manufacturers - and installers, thank you - thrive.