A guest post by Scott Dawson, Environmental Director at ENGIE North America. It is an exciting time to be in the clean energy industry—especially in the environmental field.   The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has allowed a massive amount of investment in the clean energy space, resulting in the unprecedented growth of projects being developed, built, and operated. As development continues in existing geographies and expands into new areas, the extent of issues and potential stakeholder conflicts continues to grow and evolve.  The ACP Siting & Permitting Conference 2024 ..read more

Guest post by Meghan Semiao, OMS 2024 Program Co-Chair Director of Asset Management and O&MCopia Power I attended my first ACP Operations, Maintenance, and Safety Conference (OMS) in 2016.   From the moment I arrived, I was completely blown away by the knowledge of the panelists, the breadth and depth of the presentations, and the quality of the networking on the exhibit hall floor.   I walked away with new contacts and a new perspective on how to solve issues I had been trying to work through, returning to work the following Monday ready to roll up my sleeves to help m ..read more

I vividly remember my first resource assessment conference in 2009. Two things stood out to me right away. First, the work was interesting! This was clearly an industry constantly trying to improve itself. Presenters shared the latest methodologies for long-term wind speed correction and there was a collective effort to come to grips with uncertainties in those and other assessment steps.  The technical content was directly relevant to my day-to-day as an analyst. The second thing that could not be missed was how much this community of experts seemed to genuinely enjoy each other.  T ..read more

In the dynamic world of clean energy, where innovation meets sustainability, the importance of safety cannot be overstated. The American Clean Power Association (ACP)’s 2023 “Fail Safe, Improve Safety” Workforce Safety Campaign is progress in this realm, highlighting the crucial role human performance plays in ensuring the well-being of clean energy workers. By providing workers with effective tools and strategies to enhance their performance, the campaign seeks to reduce serious injuries or fatalities (SIFs), prevent incidents, and promote a safer and more productive industry. Let’s remove th ..read more

There’s no doubt about it – wind, solar, and grid-scale battery storage are crucial to decarbonizing global energy systems. With NYC Climate Week in full swing, we want to highlight the additional benefits clean power brings to our local environments.    Greenhouse Gas Emissions  With just the utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage systems operating in the US today, we’ve achieved massive environmental benefits through reducing carbon emissions. At a high level, wind and solar power projects already on the grid avoid 426 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year – that’s ..read more

Guest post by Rounak Kharait, R&T 2023 Program Co-Chair Sr. Director, Solar Energy Onshore Technical Assessment Ørsted Americas The U.S. clean energy industry has entered an exciting era, fueled by policy and supercharged by the urgency of emissions reduction. Alarm bells are sounding globally with higher frequency and greater magnitude extreme weather events such as hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, floods, wildfires, and hail. The enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has provided unprecedented support for the build-out of the infrastructure needed to create jobs to advance new ..read more

Guest post by Dan ShugarFounder and CEO, Nextracker In 2021 the COVID-19 pandemic threw global supply chains into disarray, making clear the need to build more resilient supply chains. America has the innovation, engineering expertise, and natural resources to revive our supply chain. But our industry needs to be able to perform no matter what the world throws at us, whether it’s some unseen supply chain crisis, a meltdown in global logistics, or commodity price shocks. Fortunately, since the IRA’s passage in August of 2022, American Clean Power Association (ACP) has documented over 47 new cle ..read more

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will boost wind, solar, and storage and now is the time to protect assets. The US wind and solar industries have received a boost with the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes numerous measures aimed at incentivizing investment in renewable energy. The American Clean Power Association (ACP) has described the Act as the “single largest investment in renewable power in the history of this country, and the largest investment in climate action to date.” It is predicted that solar will represent 54% of the US utility-scale electric ..read more

This week marks ACP’s 2023 Operations and Maintenance and Safety (OMS) Conference in Orlando, Florida. This conference is the place where industry leaders, experts and external stakeholders meet to discuss the latest health and safety, operations and maintenance, training and development, and quality assurance conversations that will be critical as we prepare for the expansive future of the clean energy workforce. View the full OMS agenda to learn more.  Keeping our workforce safe on the job is the clean energy industry’s top priority. ACP Conferences like OMS unite members who are leadin ..read more

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents a significant milestone in the federal government’s action on clean energy and addressing climate change. However, such historic investment in our future does not come without its challenges.  The clean power industry continues to face substantial barriers to project deployment, which could put numerous projects at risk. In particular, the siting of solar, onshore wind and storage projects requires a multitude of processes including lease negotiations, contracts, local governing body permits, applicable state and federal permits (environmental ..read more