SEIA announced that solar module manufacturer REC Americas has joined its board of directors.
REC is a California-based U.S. division of the international, vertically integrated solar module manufacturer REC Group. The company was founded in 1996 and has a global footprint.
“REC Americas is one of the leading manufacturers of solar technologies and products in the world,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “I am thrilled to welcome one of the best onto SEIA’s board of directors, as we work to strengthen and build a more robust U.S. solar manufacturing sector.”
REC joins fellow module manufacturers like Canadian Solar, Hanwha Q CELLS and SunPower on the board.
“On behalf of REC Americas and REC Group, I am extremely proud to be joining the SEIA board of directors,” said Cary Hayes, president of REC Americas. “Our industry is in a stage of transition as we scale to serve as a significant player in the U.S. energy market. SEIA is the leading voice addressing both the challenges and opportunities of the solar industry and we look forward to working with SEIA on the issues that will drive solar as a significant component of a clean energy and sustainable future.”
News item from SEIA
Solarman says
Interesting the article mentions these manufacturers as main players on SEIAs board: “REC joins fellow module manufacturers like Canadian Solar, Hanwha Q CELLS and SunPower on the board.”
I have to wonder, if these solar PV entities aren’t making the future panel specifications and therefore making their product more ‘within spec.’ than other manufacturers?
The best way right now to make the U.S. solar PV sector, “…build a more robust U.S. solar manufacturing sector.”” Will be to use the very product they produce to power the bulk of their manufacturing process. Kicking the old arguments like, how much coal fired electricity is used to make these panels, from forming the silicon log, to cutting it into wafers, to adding impurities that extract electrons from impinging photons, to assembling the cells into panels. Solar PV, manufactured by solar PV. So, in this instance, where is the break even point of energy in to energy out for the solar PV product? Because of the amount of coal fired generation online about 20 years ago, it was said that solar PV panels would have to put out power for 10 years to ‘erase’ the power requirements to manufacture using coal fired electricity. IF you really want to reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing, then use solar PV to erase the fueled electric bill. Wind generation with energy storage is also a useful revenue stream when the energy storage can be used for excess energy arbitrage in the manufacturing and utility sectors.