The US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) will combine to form a single trade organisation representing the full breadth of solar PV deployments.
The merger was approved by both trade bodies’ boards of directors and will be effective in “early October,” according to SEIA. CCSA will integrate its team, resources, and policy work into the new trade body, which is expected to continue operating under the SEIA brand; SEIA confirmed to PV Tech this week that “the CCSA brand will sunset, and its activities will operate under the SEIA brand.”
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CCSA said that the new trade body would be the only national association to represent “every segment” of the solar and storage industry, and that it would work “at both the state and the federal levels”. This year, the trade body has pushed for stronger cybersecurity measures at a federal level and “applauded” a new bill in Massachusetts to facilitate more flexible home energy systems, which often involve solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS).
“By bringing CCSA into SEIA, we’re creating a stronger, more unified voice for the solar and storage industry,” said SEIA CEO Tim Pawlenty, who took the position in May, replacing Abigail Ross Hopper who had previously served as CEO for nine years. “Together, we’ll build on CCSA’s success and become a more powerful advocate for every segment of the industry.”
The merger follows the US exceeding 10GW of cumulative community solar capacity at the end of 2025, according to figures from Wood Mackenzie and CCSA, although those figures showed a 25% year-on-year decline in new capacity additions. The most recent figures from SEIA also show that utility-scale solar has become the driving force in US solar additions, with a 45% year-on-year increase in solar deployments driven “almost entirely” by the utility-scale solar sector, and SEIA confirmed to PV Tech that the merger does not mean that the trade body is prioritising the needs of the community solar sector over the utility-scale sector.
A SEIA spokesperson also informed PV Tech that, as part of the merger, it would establish a new project within its policy department called Distributed Power that would combine CCSA’s expertise in community solar with SEIA’s “broader state, federal and regulatory advocacy capabilities.”
The spokesperson added that the new project would work to “implement coordinated advocacy strategies in the states,” but did not provide more specific details at this time.
CCSA CEO Jeff Cramer also announced on LinkedIn that he would be “departing” CCSA following the move, and that he is “confident the merged organisation will lead us into this next chapter successfully,” but this departure was not commented on by SEIA, in its initial press release or in response to PV Tech’s questions.
“Today, as distributed community power has become one of the most credible solutions to affordability and grid reliability, so has the need for greater scale, resources and expertise to meet the moment,” said Cramer. “I am deeply proud of the work we have done, the team we built, and the industry we helped shape, and equally excited to see it evolve inside SEIA.”
