Rhone Resch has announced his decision to step down as President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on May 31, 2016. SEIA will name an interim leader and begin the executive search process before his departure.
Rhone Resch
Nat Kreamer, chairman of SEIA’s board of directors, expressed the association’s gratitude to Rhone for his accomplishments as SEIA’s chief executive officer.
“During his 12 years of leadership at SEIA, Rhone grew the organization from a grassroots collective of solar companies into a formidable national association with a strong presence in Washington and members that range from local family businesses to blue chip and Fortune 500 companies,” Kreamer said. “He created a single, powerful voice for the industry, representing all technologies and markets. That unified front has been the hallmark of SEIA for the last 12 years and recently helped us secure a huge win at the federal level with the extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), ensuring the solar industry’s role as an economic engine of growth for the United States for years to come.”
“I am honored to have been able to contribute to building an industry that has such a positive impact on the U.S. economy, our energy security and the environment,” Resch said in a letter to membership. “With the ITC extended through 2021 and solar energy markets growing throughout the country, now is the right time for me to move on to new challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
As president and CEO of SEIA, Rhone played a key role in securing policies that fostered the explosive growth of the U.S. solar industry, including the creation, modification and multiple extensions of the ITC since 2005. During his tenure, SEIA also was instrumental in expanding state renewable portfolio standards (RPS) across the country, protecting and enhancing net energy metering laws, spearheading siting and permitting reforms and supporting the adoption of carbon regulations.
The policy victories that SEIA achieved under Rhone’s leadership made solar a significant part of America’s energy mix. Since 2004, the industry has installed more than 30 GW of solar in the U.S. while reducing technology costs by more than 80%. This created more than 200,000 well-paying jobs and pumped more than $150 billion into the economy during difficult economic times.
Rhone and SEIA staff have driven efforts to hold the solar industry to the highest levels of integrity with the development of critical business codes and consumer protections that will provide the public with great confidence in buying solar. And looking ahead with the doubling of solar jobs and quadrupling of electric generating capacity expected in the next five years, Rhone is leaving SEIA in a historically strong position to continue as America’s most effective national solar advocacy group.