An urgent plea to the Solar Industry from Jigar Shah and Barry Cinnamon:

We don’t call it the “Solar Coaster” for nothing. U.S. solar installations will hit 16 GW in 2016. These solar installations are having a big impact on Main Streets all over the country: our industry employs over 200,000 people, over a million Americans have installed solar, more solar is being deployed than any other energy source, and solar is delivering electricity at a value greater than that of new natural gas plants across the country.

But with profitability challenges and regulatory uncertainty at the state level, the solar coaster is about to take another turn.

…Just when we have a leadership vacuum at the top.

…When monopoly utilities are pulling out all the stops to eliminate net metering and add punitive fixed charges to kill the customer-owned solar industry that employ over 100,000 people.

…And when the Solar Energy Industries Association – which ostensibly represents all solar businesses in the U.S. – has a governance system that favors utility scale solar interests. Even though the majority of solar companies and employees in the U.S. are focused on rooftop solar, also called distributed generation.

We want you to sign our petition to let SEIA know that local residential and commercial solar companies want to pay more in dues to support the solar industry if they are ensured to have the same voice and influence as their utility solar brothers and sisters.

If you have solar on your roof, if you work for a solar company, if your business is powered by solar, or if you just want the benefits of clean solar energy without lining the pockets of monopoly utilities, please sign our petition. And pass it on to your friends.

Jigar Shah and Barry Cinnamon