May 24, 2020
Robert Hornung has been president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association since 2003. Last week, CanWEA and the Canadian Solar Industries Association announced they are merging to form the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, with Hornung at the helm. He talked to The Energy Mix about a massive moment of opportunity for solar, wind, and storage, and the importance of speaking with a common voice.
The Energy Mix: Are you calling this a merger, and what do you see as the advantages?
Hornung: I wish we could say we were the first. In Australia, the associations came together several years ago now in the Clean Energy Council, which has demonstrated that the technologies have a lot of common interests and can cooperate and work together.
So yes, this is a merger that recognizes the natural synergies between the technologies to give ourselves a more powerful voice in advocacy and communications—and frankly, to present a more comprehensive solution and product that addresses the concerns we’re increasingly hearing around reliability. The new association is not focused just on wind and solar energy, but also on energy storage. So we can talk about offering solutions all the way from the residential homeowner, in terms of solar PV and batteries, to large, utility-scale projects. It captures the full potential of the technologies.
Read full interview here: https://theenergymix.com/2020/05/24/the-interview-canada-can-create-jobs-set-a-signpost-for-the-world-in-shift-to-100-renewable-electricity-hornung-says/
