Nearly 300 people assembled in Calgary, Alberta this week for the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) Operations Summit, the nation’s largest conference and exhibition devoted to the operation of renewable energy and energy storage sites.
“This is the fourth annual edition of our Operations Summit, and it’s the first time we hosted in Calgary,” said Vittoria Bellissimo, CanREA’s president and CEO. “This event brings together wind, solar and energy storage operators to learn from each other and improve how they operate facilities across Canada—making them safer, more resilient and more efficient.”
This annual CanREA event is geared for those who construct, operate and supply Canada’s expanding fleet of wind, solar, and energy storage assets: these are the people who deliver the nuts and bolts of Canada’s energy transition. Fittingly, this year’s theme was “Operating in a Changing Climate.”
“Operators are on the front lines of climate change,” said Mathieu Côté, Director of CanREA’s Operators Program. “At the Operations Summit, we asked them to share the best practices, lessons learned and technologies they are using to ensure the safe, reliable and effective operations of Canada’s renewable energy sites, even as our wind and solar regimes are getting less predictable and our sites are being subjected to increasingly extreme weather events.”
Through industry-focused discussions and engaging presentations, the conference program covered highly technical operations topics, such as how to build a cost-effective solar maintenance program, turbine blade issues and how to avoid them, and natural disasters from a health and safety perspective.
The vent featured two “National Operators Roundtables”—one for wind operators and one for solar operators. Côté led the discussion as attendees compared experiences from across the country, shared best practices, near misses and “good to know” elements, brainstormed solutions to common problems, and provided feedback that will shape the future of CanREA’s Operators program.
CanREA acknowledged the support of attendees, exhibitors and event sponsors with a special thank you to Liberty Power (health and safety sponsor), Pandell and Goldwind (lunch sponsors), Energy Safety Canada (mobile app sponsor), EDF Renewables and SparkPower, and Session Sponsor Irth (hospitality sponsors).
A photo album from the Summit will be available soon here: https://renewablesassociation.ca/event/canrea-operations-summit-2024/
For more information, visit: “Powering Canada’s Journey to Net-Zero: CanREA’s 2050 Vision.”
Featured image: Nearly 300 people attended CanREA’s Operations Summit in Calgary on April 10-11, 2024, a unique conference devoted to the operation of renewable energy and energy storage sites across Canada. Credit: CanREA.