Research & Deployment Program Manager National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, Colorado
Presentation Description: The U.S. wind energy industry is at a pivotal stage, with the potential to significantly impact the nation’s energy future. However, annual domestic wind energy deployment fell to the lowest annual deployment since 2018 in 2022, only reach about 8.5 GW of deployment. Although many factors contributed to this decline, most notably the reduced value of the Production Tax Credit prior to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, this demonstrates that a path to a low carbon electricity system cannot be left to simple market dynamics. Many studies have outlined the levels of deployment that will be needed to decarbonize the electricity sector, none have provided an outline to what is needed to make that happen. Building from a focus on land-based wind energy, this presentation will lay out a plan of action to deploy the high levels of renewable energy that will be needed to decarbonize the electricity sector by the middle of the next decade. Looking at key deployment challenges including environmental impacts and community engagement, we will articulate the actions that need to be undertaken to advance clean energy deployment at a national scale to support the energy transition. Although formidable, this work demonstrates that a transition to a electricity system that is primarily reliant on clean energy technology is possible and will provide extensive benefits that far out way the efforts required for implementation. Through this presentation participants will be able to more effectively communicate what a clean energy future based largely on solar and wind energy could look like, how this can be achieved, and how they can take an active role through their actions and communication with others.
