Second part of a two-part interview. Click here to read the first.

The Solar Energy Industries Association kept a whiteboard calendar at the front of its conference room in the waning days of 2011 that ticked off the days until the scheduled end of a popular Treasury Department grant program.

At the time, an extension of the so-called Section 1603 program had become the sole focus of SEIA and a slew of other renewable energy associations. At a news conference held in the same conference room just weeks before the end of the year, a SEIA official called the program "the single most effective policy driving renewable energy growth during the past two years."

Arno Harris, CEO of Recurrent Energy, was elected chairman of the board of directors for the Solar Energy Industries Association in June. Photo courtesy of Arno Harris.

Nearly nine months after Congress allowed the program to expire, the recently elected chairman of SEIA's board of directors, Arno Harris, said there continues to be heightened degree of uncertainty in the solar market as a result of that decision. He would love to see the program reinstated, he said, but he is not overly optimistic that could happen in today's hyperpartisan political environment.

"The big issue was it [1603] ran into an ideological barrier in the Congress that has been difficult to get by," Harris said in an interview, referring to a larger green energy debate this year in which the solar energy company Solyndra cast a shadow over most every federal renewable energy effort.

It is a political battle that this week has become a major front in the presidential contest as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney unveiled his energy plan and GOP leaders solidified the energy plank in their party platform. Both rollouts included a heavy dose of Solyndra as Republicans blasted the Obama administration's investments in green energy (Greenwire, Aug. 21).

"The politics right now, the politicization of energy in the election, is probably the biggest issue facing U.S. solar," Harris said.

But as he begins his term as chairman of the board, Harris said the industry's ability to keep moving despite the political rhetoric and despite the end of the Section 1603 program keeps him optimistic about the future of solar.

Under 1603, commercial solar projects with construction start dates between 2009 and 2011 were allowed to apply for a 30 percent grant, in lieu of the more traditional investment tax credit (ITC), reducing a company's initial capital outlay.

By the end of 2011 the U.S. solar industry's total market value surpassed $8.4 billion, solidifying its place as the second-largest renewable energy sector behind wind energy. And according to a SEIA report, U.S. photovoltaic installations in the first quarter of 2012 were up 85 percent over the same period last year. But that report also acknowledged much of the growth in the first quarter was due to projects that were driven by a "safe harbor" provision allowing the 1603 grant to be paid as long as a minimal portion of the project was under way by the end of last year.

An earlier SEIA report warned that installations were expected to taper off in the latter half of this year. But Harris sees reason for hope.

"1603 was probably the most important policy during the global economic crisis ... in ensuring that capital continued to flow to large-scale and small-scale solar projects, just because the traditional investor base for tax equity in those projects almost disappeared entirely," he said.

But the ongoing economic recovery has brought back those more traditional avenues for tax equity -- usually a bank or another large company, he said.

Meanwhile, Harris said, the solar industry has had success in looking to alternative ways to ensure the flow of capital in new projects, such as the real estate investment trusts that have been used successfully in the oil and gas industry.

With 1603 gone, "does it mean the entire industry comes to a halt? No. We're a bunch of resourceful and innovative, dynamic companies that are working hard to make our industry work," he said.

As he looks ahead, Harris said SEIA is focused on issues that could affect continued grown, the most important of which may be the looming end of the ITC in 2016. Other programs that will play into continued expansion are state efforts to require utilities to supply a percentage of electricity used from renewable resources and provide incentives for efforts to encourage companies putting solar arrays on rooftops.

Harris said he is taking over the board "during a period when the industry is growing and we're really achieving what has been the organizing goal for a long time, which has been to help solar reach the mainstream and become a part of our mainstream energy economy."

As that happens, he said, "I think we'll see an increasing focus on grid access and permitting, which is from a regulatory standpoint doing the blocking and tackling to ensure solar is connected to the grid and has access to markets."

As for a reinstatement of 1603, he hasn't given up hope.

"Anything's possible after we get past the election," he said.