Reflecting on 14 Years of ACP’s Resource & Technology Conference: A Journey of Evolution and Innovation

I vividly remember my first resource assessment conference in 2009. Two things stood out to me right away.

First, the work was interesting! This was clearly an industry constantly trying to improve itself. Presenters shared the latest methodologies for long-term wind speed correction and there was a collective effort to come to grips with uncertainties in those and other assessment steps.  The technical content was directly relevant to my day-to-day as an analyst.

The second thing that could not be missed was how much this community of experts seemed to genuinely enjoy each other.  The gathering was lively in addition to educational.

Fourteen years later, I still find these to be hallmarks of what is now the ACP Resource & Technology (R&T) Conference.

This year’s conference has a broader scope than ever – including wind, solar, storage, transmission, and hydrogen sessions. Experts will share insights ranging from preconstruction assessment methods and models to asset management and project life extensions.

Whenever I share with someone the story of my career thus far, one thing I often say is that while the goal of my team’s efforts hasn’t changed, the way we go about our work is constantly evolving to be more efficient and more accurate. This dynamic is what keeps me engaged and excited to continue our work. To that end, I am particularly looking forward to sessions this year on offshore wind, wake modelling, solar P50 bias, AI & performance analytics, and more.  Having participated in many session planning calls already, I can assure you the industry’s best and brightest are preparing some incredible content.

However, as I mentioned above, content is not the only reason to join us in Austin next month.

ACP R&T is also a wonderful place to meet colleagues and counterparts. In this post-covid era, the importance of in-person networking cannot be overstated. If you’re early in your career or have yet to meet many people in your discipline, you will not find a more welcoming group of subject matter experts than those at this event. Making connections and getting in the weeds of a technical topic over a drink is one of the best ways to grow as an analyst or engineer.

Additionally, I’ve always found this conference to be one which largely checks competitiveness at the door. We may each have our secret sauce, but we are also working to help the clean energy industry succeed as a whole and that means working together to advance the state of the art in clean energy assessment, performance, and reliability.

I must admit, even from the early years of my attendance, I did aspire to eventually co-chair this conference. I am exceedingly thankful to have been given the opportunity to serve in this way. But what began with ambition (or perhaps pride: hoping to be ‘important’ enough for such a role), has ended up instead giving me a vantage to see the diverse and impressive talent which makes up our industry.

Join us in Austin and see for yourself!