Hosts: Brandon Hurlbut, Shane Skelton & Julia Pyper
Guest: Heather Zichal | CEO | American Clean Power Association
Category: ⚡ Renewable Energy
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[19:25] “The American Clean Power Association was launched in January of this year […]. Initially wind was one of the first movers on the clean energy scale. So they had a wind energy trade association and a number of different technology based trade associations. [But] […] the days of a pure play wind company are over. We're all […] in wind and transmission or wind and solar, [or] wind and solar and storage. So a decision was made that we would create the first clean energy trade association. We represent wind both on and offshore, solar, storage and transmission policies.”
[21:55] “What's exciting is that we are finally […] standing up offshore wind in the United States for the first time. […] We've got 42 megawatts here in the United States versus 24,000 megawatts between Europe [and] the UK and 10,000 megawatts in Asia. So the United States is behind. But I think we have a huge opportunity to catch up. And we also have an opportunity to learn from the other countries that have been deploying this technology. […] So we're really excited about the goal that the Biden administration put forward of deploying 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2030. We as an industry […] think it's aggressive and bold, but achievable.”
[22:58] “The other thing that is so exciting about [offshore winds] is, what it means from a jobs perspective. Even if you looked at the 30 by 30 target from the Biden administration, that's going to jumpstart an industry and has the potential to create up to 83,000 jobs and $25 billion in annual economic output. And we spend a lot of time talking about a just and equitable transition [and] a lot of our port communities are going to be supporting offshore wind.”
[28:28] “The notion that you're magically going to have this domestic supply chain ready to rumble is not exactly practical. However, let me be clear, we think there's a great opportunity not just to build and construct the turbines themselves, but look across the entire supply chain and create American made components for the turbine, American made ships to service the offshore wind projects.”
[29:00] “The thing that has been missing is certainty and predictability in the regulations. And this is sad to say, but back in 2002, when I worked for then Senator John Kerry. We were trying to figure out what is the right permitting process to build an offshore wind turbine. And that was 20 years ago. And now we just finally are permitting the facilities. So it's been a long road. But now that I think we've got the administration really focused on this 30 by 30 target, we've got the Department of Interior who recognizes the importance of deploying clean energy, […] many members of the Cabinet [think that] […] offshore wind is going to play a really important role in helping achieve those broader decarbonization targets in the power sector.”
Rating: ⚡⚡⚡
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify
🕰️ 41 min | 🗓️ 10/28/2021
✅ Time saved: 39 min
