WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) convened at the German Embassy in Washington on Thursday to obtain insight on the significant scale-up of renewables in both Europe and the U.S. By gathering key experts and thought leaders in the American and European markets, the day-long discussion aimed to educate and promote best practices in renewable integration while ensuring optimal performance and reliability of the electric grid.
"There has been a major boom in renewable energy development across the Atlantic, especially in the last five years," said ACORE President and CEO, Michael Brower. "What we've tried to foster today is an open discussion between industry experts from both continents in order to promote efficiency in how we handle the scale-up of renewable energy deployment. We put a lot of brainpower and experience in the room, and the hope is to teach each other successful practices to integrate the influx of renewables to the existing energy infrastructure."
In conjunction with the event, ACORE published a member-authored, ACORE-guided market review. The report, Renewable Energy at Scale in the U.S. and Europe: Lessons Learned and Best Practices, contains a series of white papers that examine and compare market structures in Europe and the U.S., provide insight on Germany's Energiewende (energy transition policy) and U.S. energy policy, and propose market and technological solutions to further improve deployment.
ACORE's Chief Researcher and Program Manager explained: "Many U.S. states and European nations are already surpassing their renewable energy targets. A combination of private investment and ingenuity has helped drive cost reductions and technology improvements, which have led to significant increases in renewables on both continents. There are, of course, a number of ways government entities can safely ensure this continued scale-up."
Speaking specifically on policy, the Germany Embassy added detail to the report on the German experience.
"We've learned a lot in recent years about how policy can spur growth in renewable energy," said Michael Weber, who wrote on Germany's Energiewende. "In Germany's example, a mix of policy and financial tools has greatly aided our renewable energy portfolio in more than quadrupling since 2000. And even though our policy mechanisms differ from other nations, there are certainly some lessons we can share with other states looking for similar growth."
Thursday's meeting was broken into three distinct panel discussions using ACORE's joint report as a focal point. The expert coalition of panelists discussed: policy and regulatory considerations for driving renewable energy scale-up; grid integration strategies to advance infrastructure and innovation; and financial and market considerations in modernizing power delivery.
A group of government and prominent private organizations authored the articles in the review: the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the U.S.Department of Energy Loan Programs Office, IBM, Energy Future Coalition, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
About ACORE:
ACORE, a 501(c)(3) non-profit membership organization, is dedicated to building a secure and prosperous America with clean, renewable energy. ACORE seeks to advance renewable energy through finance, policy, technology, and market development and is concentrating its member focus in 2014 on National Defense & Security, Power Generation & Infrastructure, and Transportation. Additional information is available at www.acore.org
ACORE Media Contact:
Kevin Haley
(202) 777-7584
haley@acore.org
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