US trade group SEPA swaps out 'solar' from its name

In a sign of the times, the 24-year-old Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), one of two national solar trade groups in the US, is dropping the ‘solar’ from its name and rebranding as the Smart Electric Power Alliance, reflecting the growing importance of energy storage, smart grids and demand response in the solar market.

SEPA – which claims more than 1,000 member organizations ranging from utilities like Southern California Edison to PV companies like First Solar and SunPower – says the name change will take effect in mid-April.

In some ways, the change is simply a way of catching up to the group’s current reality. In recent years Washington DC-based SEPA has been focusing greater amounts of its attention on things like storage and smart energy efficiency, and last fall it absorbed the Association for Demand Response and Smart Grid.

SEPA's