Industry leaders from Vestas and Xcel Energy to shape inaugural event for renewable energy industry

WASHINGTON—Today, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced conference chairs for CLEANPOWER 2020 (CP 2020), the new pan-renewable conference and exhibition hub for the U.S. energy industry launching next year. Chris Brown, President of Vestas' sales and service division in the U.S. and Canada, and Teresa Mogensen, Senior Vice President of Energy Supply at Xcel Energy, will provide vision and leadership defining CP 2020 conference program objectives, including the selection of session topics and speakers.

Brown is an energy industry leader with decades of experience running electric utility and independent power operations. He also serves on the Vestas Wind Systems executive committee as Group Senior Vice President for the world's largest provider of wind turbines. Mogensen is responsible for an 18,000 MW power generation fleet that supplies electric power for 3.5 million customers in eight states. Xcel Energy is committed to leading the clean energy transition and is adding significant new wind, solar, and energy storage assets to its diverse energy mix.

At the WINDPOWER 2019 Welcome General Session, AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan announced the creation of CLEANPOWER as the new exhibition hub that will bring together the utility-scale wind power, solar power, and energy storage industries when it launches in Denver in May 2020. By incorporating these technologies into a single exhibition hub, CLEANPOWER will create efficiencies for exhibitors and attendees with multi-technology business models. Pure-play businesses will benefit from increased show traffic and opportunities to build beneficial partnerships across the cleantech industry.

"For years, the WINDPOWER Conference has been the leading platform for wind industry leaders like Vestas to gather market intelligence, network and build partnerships," Brown said. "While WINDPOWER will remain the heart of this annual event, I'm thrilled to help guide its evolution into an expanded scope as CLEANPOWER—an even bigger opportunity for companies in wind, solar and storage."

"Xcel Energy is committed to a carbon free future that requires wind, solar, storage and other technologies to work together," Mogensen said. "That's precisely what CLEANPOWER 2020 will do. As conference chair, I'm honored to develop a program that will help our sector grow more efficiently by addressing issues in finance & investment, electrification, grid integration, market design & transmission, and the myriad federal, state, and regional policies that we must navigate."

Make plans to attend CLEANPOWER 2020, June 1-4, 2020 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. Registration opens this fall. Stay tuned for details on registration, speakers, exhibits and other exciting developments at www.cleanpowerexpo.org.

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AWEA is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy industry. We represent 1,000 member companies and over 114,000 jobs in the U.S. economy, serving as a powerful voice for how wind works for America. Members include global leaders in wind power and energy development, turbine manufacturing, and component and service suppliers. They gather each year at the Western Hemisphere's largest wind energy event, the AWEA WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition, next in Denver, June 1-4, 2020. WINDPOWER 2020 will be housed within CLEANPOWER, the new exhibition hub for utility-scale renewable energy, bringing together wind power, solar power, and energy storage industries. Find information about wind energy on the AWEA website. Gain insight into industry issues on AWEA's blog, Into the Wind. And please join us on Facebook and follow @AWEA on Twitter and LinkedIn.