OREANDA-NEWS. August 27, 2015. This week, Amy Ericson, Alstom USA Country President, participated in a senior level panel of energy industry leaders at the 8th National Clean Energy Summit.  Alstom was invited by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada following testimonies by Amy Ericson and Michael Atkinson, leader of Alstom Grid North America, to Congressional committees on energy.

Summit sponsors included Senator Harry Reid of Nevada; Nevada Energy, NRG, Enel Green Power and the University of Nevada.

?The Summit agenda, titled Powering Progress, focused on the challenges and opportunities of growing renewable energy and integrating renewables into the existing electricity markets. Given the Nevada location, solar was a major focus of the day's discussion, both distributed roof top and community and utility scale central station. 

The opening keynote was a discussion with Secretary of Energy Moniz and President Obama spoke at the day's end. In their remarks, they jointly announced a series of new programs to support renewables, including: a \\$1B loan guarantee program administered by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support distributed energy; \\$24M in DOE funded research directed to increasing the conversion efficiency of PV (photovoltaic); approval of a transmission line in California to support a CSP (concentrated solar power) plant.

Amy Ericson joined a panel which included the DOE and other grid technology suppliers. Her panel explored the critical role of Intelligent/Smart Grid technology in supporting integration of renewables. The panelists discussed the need to modernize and upgrade both transmission and distribution networks to increase resilience and ensure continued affordability while also growing use of renewables.

The Summit also presented a debate between a consultant supporting solar advocates and an EEI representatives on the structure of markets and net metering policies.  For more information on the Clean Energy Summit - http://www.cleanenergysummit.org/newsroom/press-releases