For Immediate Release
March 6, 2018

Windustry Presents Awards to those growing Community Wind and Sustainable Energy

Washington DC. – At the Distributed Wind Energy Association Conference last week, Windustry presented their annual Community Wind and Sustainable Energy Awards. The three awards are selected and presented by a national Peer Group of Community Wind and Sustainable Energy Colleagues which included Tom Wind, Wind Utility Consulting, IA; Heather Rhodes-Weaver, eFormative Options, WA; Mia Devine, Spark Northwest, WA; Chris Diaz, Seminole Finance, FL; Trudy Forsyth, Wind Advisors Team, CO; James Duffy, Nixon-Peabody, LLP, MA; and Lisa Daniels, Windustry, MN.

2018 Distinguished Service Award 
Windustry and its Board of Directors along with the peer group of professionals who work in Community Wind & Sustainable Energy were pleased to present the 2018 Distinguished Service in Community Wind Award to Alice Orrell, of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Lisa Daniels, Windustry Executive Director said, “We are fortunate to have Alice Orrell working with the community and distributed wind industry. Her market databases and analyses help to track and expand the distributed wind’s role in our nation’s energy mix. ”This award is given annually to a person that has made exceptional significant contributions, over several years, to the establishment and growth of distributed wind and locally owned renewable energy.

Alice Orrell, of Pacific Northwest National Lab with the 2018 Community Wind and Sustainable Energy Distinguished Service Award

(From left to right, front row, Tony Grappone, Novogradac LLP and Windustry Board Member; Alice Orrell, PNNL with the award, Lisa Daniels, Windustry; back row Trudy Forsyth, Wind Advisors, Jim Duffy, Nixon Peabody, LLP and Windustry Board Member.)   

In her role at PNNL, Alice Orrell, Energy and Environment Directorate, with research interests including: wind energy resource assessments, project development, and market research; Excel pro forma modeling and sensitivity analysis; renewable energy policy; and stakeholder engagement.

We are highlighting, Alice’s work as the lead author of the annual Distributed Wind Market Report produced for DOE, along with other reports and modeling tools focused on distributed and community wind. The Market Report serves as a primary information source that helps manufacturers, installers, developers, policy makers, and other industry players better understand the US and global distributed wind markets. We are honoring Alice for bringing her essential “can-do” attitude to the project teams she works with along with her professional skills and technical expertise.

2018 Innovator Award
This award goes to Lloyd Ritter, founder and managing partner of Green Capitol, LLC. For the past few years, Lloyd has had amazing persistence in getting the federal ITC for distributed wind renewed amidst tremendously challenging political times.

And in the words of Jim Duffy, of Nixon Peabody and Windustry Board member, “Lloyd performed extraordinary feats in getting this through Congress and convincing and cajoling majorities in both the House and the Senate to include these provisions in the budget legislation and in convincing the White House staff that it should not object to the Congress’ work in this regard.”

Lisa Daniels, Windustry and Lloyd Ritter, Green Capitol, LLC receiving the 2018 Community Wind & Sustainable Energy Innovator Award

Since 2006 Green Capitol has specialized in agriculture, clean energy and environment advocacy, strategic planning and public policy development. The company has advised a wide-array of businesses, trade groups and non-profit organizations. Lloyd has a very long history of working successfully across the political divide, and with diverse constituencies such as NGOs, agriculture and good governance organizations to help win policy victories in the broad public interest.

2018 Groundbreaking Project
This award was announced and will be presented later in March to Craig Dublanko of the Coastal Community Action Program in Grayland, Washington, for the Coastal Community Wind Project.

Awarded for its 10-year development process and innovative financing to serve low-income communities. Most notable of all, Craig and the project team possessed the extraordinary creativity and fortitude to be the first in the nation to use New Markets Tax Credits to build a community wind project.

This award is presented annually to an individual, group or organization who has constructed a locally based renewable energy project with a novel approach. The Coastal award-winning project demonstrates how Craig and his team worked together to overcome complex finance requirements; forged ahead with the project after multiple revisions; and created an inclusive sustainable solution with several unexpected allies and partners.

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Windustry is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis working locally, regionally and nationally to build a path for clean energy in all communities.

Media Contact:
Lisa Daniels, Windustry
[email protected]
612-270-7161