June 23, 2011

Great Lakes Wind Collaborative recognized in national award

The Great Lakes Commission received the Larry Flowers Award for Outstanding Leadership in recognition of its efforts supporting the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative (GLWC). The award was received on behalf of the Great Lakes Commission by Victoria Pebbles at the Wind Powering America (WPA) All-States Summit on May 26, 2011, which took place following WINDPOWER 2011 in Anaheim, California.

The award was for the Commission’s “excellence in developing a new model of regional wind collaboration.” Upon the urging of one of its member states, the Great Lakes Commission agreed to be the secretariat for the newly formed Great Lakes Wind Collaborative in 2007. Leadership structure and operating principles were formally established through a GLWC Charter, launching the GLWC as the first multijurisdictional, multisector coalition of wind energy stakeholders. The GLWC’s purpose is to facilitate the sustainable development of wind power in the binational Great Lakes region.

“The Great Lakes Commission is pleased that the GLWC is recognized at the national level for addressing regional wind energy issues,” said Tim Eder, executive director of the Commission. “We look forward to its continued leadership in bringing diverse interests together in the Great Lakes region and working toward responsible, sustainable wind power.”

In its first four years, the Collaborative has worked on numerous wind energy topics including offshore wind, siting and permitting, economic development, transmission, and has developed a Great Lakes Wind Atlas. The group has conducted several public meetings and webinars to disseminate knowledge and gather input to help address the many wind energy issues in the Great Lakes region.

“With the rapid expansion of wind power in the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Wind Collaborative stands out as one more example of how stakeholders within our binational region have joined together to insure that our renewal energy needs are balanced by our commitment to protect the Great Lakes basin ecosystem,” said Terry Yonker, co-chair of the GLWC Steering Committee.

Members of the Collaborative include representatives from a wide spectrum of interests throughout the Great Lakes region that collectively work to achieve the purpose of the group.

"While recognizing the value of national multi-stakeholder wind groups, we saw a strong need for a focused organization that would address the unique issues of the Great Lakes region in developing environmentally sustainable wind power,” said Jeff Gosse, regional energy coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and one of the founders of the GLWC. “The Great Lakes Wind Collaborative has fulfilled our highest expectations in fostering and sustaining an international multistakeholder group to address these issues, as epitomized by its recent State of the Science workshop."

Mr. Flowers was an industry leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for three decades, and the man who launched WPA. He spent the last 10 years of his 30-year career at NREL serving as the national technical director for the highly regarded WPA program. Through WPA, he formed a network of 35 state wind working groups and four regional training and outreach institutes. Flowers recently became deputy director of distributed and community wind for the American Wind Energy Association.

Wind Powering America is a nationwide initiative designed to increase the use of wind energy across the United States by working with regional stakeholders. Through its state wind working groups, programs at NREL and other partnerships, WPA works to expedite the movement of wind technology into the mainstream of the U.S. electric sector to meet the growing demand for clean sources of electricity.

For further information on the GLWC, visit www.glc.org/energy/wind or contact John Hummer (jhummer@glc.org) or Victoria Pebbles (vpebbles@glc.org) at 734-971-9135.