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ACORE Honors Renewable Energy Champions and Leaders at Awards Gala

Award recipients include Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. Susan Collins and Pattern Energy Group

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), a national nonprofit dedicated to accelerating America’s transition to a renewable energy economy, has named this year’s recipients of its Renewable Energy Champion and Renewable Energy Leadership Awards. The awards will be presented this evening at ACORE’s Annual Awards Gala at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

ACORE will present Renewable Energy Champion Awards to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in recognition of their critically important support of policies to promote renewable energy growth and investment.

ACORE will present its Renewable Energy Leadership Award to Pattern Energy Group for the company’s pathbreaking contribution to the growth of the renewable energy economy.

“We are happy to recognize Senator Whitehouse, Senator Collins and Pattern Energy because each is playing an important role in helping us accelerate the transition to renewable power,” said ACORE President and CEO Gregory Wetstone. “Senator Whitehouse is a passionate and persistent advocate for climate action, and a great champion for renewable tax incentives. Senator Collins is a dogged supporter of energy storage, offshore wind energy and key policies to modernize the nation’s grid. And Pattern Energy has pioneered new markets and innovative structures in deploying renewable power, while showing a steadfast commitment to broadly supporting growth in the sector.”

Background on ACORE’s 2020 Renewable Energy Awardees:

Renewable Energy Champion Awardees

  • Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been a longtime ally for the renewable sector, deeply committed to combatting climate change. He co-founded the Senate Climate Action Task Force to build support for action to address carbon pollution, and he currently sits on the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. Over the course of his political career, he’s introduced numerous pieces of clean energy and climate legislation, including the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, which would put a price on carbon while generating substantial revenue for the American people.
  • Senator Susan Collins has been a strong supporter of renewable energy and advanced grid technologies since she was first elected to Congress in 1996. Her bipartisan Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act would direct the Department of Energy to develop a 10-year strategic plan for grid-scale energy storage. Sen. Collins has also been a strong supporter of tax incentives for clean energy technologies like energy storage and offshore wind.

Renewable Energy Leadership Awardee

  • Pattern Energy Group is a U.S.-based, independent renewable power company that is helping lead the way to the renewable energy transition. The company, led by CEO and co-founder Mike Garland, has a portfolio of 28 renewable energy projects with an operating capacity of 4.4 gigawatts in the United States, Canada and Japan.

“With a record $55 billion in investment in 2019, the renewable industry is booming,” Wetstone added. “However, we are all aware that we must do much better to secure the level of renewable energy penetration that scientists say is needed to protect our climate. We are happy to celebrate the efforts of this year’s ACORE awardees in helping us meet this critical challenge.”

Photos from tonight’s Awards Gala will be made available upon request.

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About ACORE:
Founded in 2001, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is the nation’s premier pan-renewable organization uniting finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. For more information, please visit www.acore.org.

Media Contact:
Alex Hobson, Vice President of Communications, ACORE
hobson@acore.org | 202.777.7584 (o) | 202.594.0706 (c)