Michael Skelly | |
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Personal details | |
Born | October 19, 1961 |
Residence(s) | Houston, Texas |
Alma mater | University of Notre Dame, Harvard Business School |
Occupation |
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Profession | 2009-2019 President and Cofounder, Clean Line Energy Partners 2021-Present CEO and Founder, Grid United |
Michael Peter Skelly (born October 19, 1961) is a Houston renewable energy and infrastructure developer and entrepreneur. He is the former Democratic candidate for Texas's 7th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1999 to 2008, he served as the chief development officer for Horizon Wind Energy, which by 2007 had become the second-largest wind farm developer and third-largest wind farm owner in the United States. [1] Skelly cofounded and served as president of Clean Line Energy Partners, an independent developer of high voltage direct current, long-haul transmission lines until 2018. [2] Skelly's work at Clean Line is detailed in the book, "Superpower: One Man's Quest to Transform American Energy" by Wall Street Journal Energy reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Russell Gold. [3] Skelly is CEO of Grid United, an independent transmission development company. [4]
Michael Skelly was born in England in 1961 to Irish parents. At the age of two, Skelly sailed to the United States from Ireland with his family aboard the SS America. His parents settled in Roanoke, Virginia where Skelly attended public schools. [1] He went on to earn his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame. After college, he joined the Peace Corps and served in Costa Rica, where he helped local fisherman develop a microcredit market to increase their economic viability after the Latin American economic crisis of the 1980s. [3] Following the Peace Corps, Skelly enrolled in Harvard Business School, where he earned his M.B.A. [3]
Skelly has been married to Anne Whitlock since 1991. The couple has three grown children: two boys and a girl. Anne earned a degree in Business Finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Anne is the Founding Director of Connect Community, an organization that works with the largely immigrant Gulfton and Sharpstown neighborhoods of Houston. The organization connects the community to resources it can collaborate with to strengthen itself socioeconomically. [5] In 2013 Skelly and Whitlock purchased the hundred year old Houston Firehouse No. 2, which had fallen into disrepair since its decommissioning in the 1980s. With their children out on their own, the couple renovated the firehouse, turning the downstairs into a community and events space and the upstairs into their residence. [6] Skelly and Whitlock were named as one of Houston's 29 most powerful couples by the Houston Chronicle in 2021. [7]
In February 2011, Skelly donated a kidney to his sister, Margaret. [8] After becoming a donor, Skelly became an advocate for living donor programs, becoming a member on the Advisory board of Living Bank, a Houston-based organization that works to advance living organ donation to confront the shortage of organs needed for life-saving transplants. [9] [10] On May 2, 2014 Skelly co-hosted a Cabaret gala fundraiser for Nora's Home - an outpatient facility designed for transplant recipients to recover. [8] In October 2017, Living Bank hosted their annual Celebrate Life Fundraiser featuring Skelly as special honoree. [11]
In 1992, Skelly and his partners began the development of an aerial tram adjacent to the Braulio Carrillo National Park of Costa Rica to promote ecotourism. [1] Skelly navigated logistical, financial and bureaucratic challenges in order to complete the project. [1] The tram equipment was purchased from a U.S. ski resort. Skelly secured a helicopter from the Nicaraguan government to install the tram towers in the dense rainforest through connections he made at Harvard. [1] The project was completed in 1994. [1] The open-air tram is a mile long and rises to the rainforest canopy to deliver guests an up-close view of the incredibly biodiverse ecosystem. The tram is still operational today.
After developing the Aerial Tram, Skelly went to work for New World Power to develop renewable energy projects in 1995. Soon after he was brought on board, the company began liquidating assets. By 1996 New World Power had gone out of business and Skelly was forced to move on. [12]
Skelly joined Energia Global in 1996, developing small energy projects in Central America. [12] [13] Skelly led Energia Global's efforts for a proposed wind farm, Tierras Morenas. Tierras Morenas would be the largest wind farm in Costa Rica, and at the time was one of the largest in Latin America. In order to purchase the wind farm site, Energia Global required a financial partner to invest capital. Skelly forged a partnership with Texan investor and co-owner of International Wind, Michael Zilkha. By 1999, the project was completed and contributing electricity to the Costa Rican grid. In 2001, 4% of the nations power was generated at Tierras Morenas and two smaller wind farms.
Skelly moved to Houston to work as Chief Development Officer for International Wind in 1999, the company that had partnered with Energia Global on the Tierras Morenas wind farm. [12] Michael Zilkha and his father, Selim Zilkha, owned 50% of International Wind until 2000, when they bought out the other 50% interest and renamed the company Zilkha Renewable Energy. [14] The company developed wind farms across the country including the 75 megawatt (MW) Blue Canyon Wind Farm in Oklahoma and 320 MW Maple Ridge Wind Farm in New York. [15] Goldman Sachs purchased Zilkha Renewable in 2005 and the company was rebranded Horizon Wind Energy. [15] At the time of acquisition, Zilkha Renewables had 4,000 megawatts of wind-energy projects under development in 12 states. [16] In 2005, wind power accounted for less than 1% of electricity generated in the United States. [15] In 2006, the Houston Business Journal quoted Skelly as saying, "Houston is the center of energy, and as renewable energy, including wind, plays a bigger role. There is an opportunity for Houston to be involved in the growth for that segment." [17] Goldman Sachs sold Horizon, which had grown to the third largest wind company in the United States, to EDP Renewables for $2.2 billion [18] for a reported gain of nearly $1 billion. [19]
In 2008, the American Wind Energy Association named Michael Skelly "Wind Energy Person of the Year" at the WindPower 2008 Conference. [20]
His work at Clean Line Energy Partners and Horizon Wind Energy is described in detail in the book Superpower by Russell Gold. [21] In 2009, Skelly founded Clean Line Energy Partners, a company focused on moving energy from resource areas to distant consumer markets. Independent studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have shown that in order for the United States to efficiently use renewable energy, the country's power grid must be updated to include long-distance transmission lines. [3] The NOAA study demonstrated the U.S. could reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 80%, using only existing technologies, and the NREL study showed the U.S. power grid must be updated for the country to run on 30% renewable energy. [3] Clean Line was an independent developer of high voltage direct current (HVDC), long-haul transmission lines, wanting to provide transmission solutions to generators and load-serving utilities in order to interconnect all sources of energy with consumers. Clean line faced numerous bureaucratic challenges while attempting to develop their HVDC transmission lines. The company had four proposed transmission line projects; Plains and Eastern Clean Line, Grainbelt Express Clean Line, Western Spirit Clean Line and Mesa Canyons Wind Farm, and Rock Island Clean Line. The Plains and Eastern Clean Line came the closest to being developed. Plains and Eastern was to deliver up to 4,000 MW from Oklahoma Panhandle wind farms to a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) substation outside of Memphis for offloading power onto the TVA grid and for sale to southeastern utilities. [22] Skelly offered to sell the TVA power at as low as 2 cents per kilowatt hour. [22] Ultimately, the TVA decided not to purchase power from the Plains and Eastern Clean Line, giving up the opportunity to lower costs for their ratepayers and add more renewables to their portfolio and that of the greater Southeast. [22] After ten years of hard work, and no developed HVDC lines, Skelly was forced to sell off the projects to other energy developers. Many of the permits and approvals for these projects still exist and they may be developed in the future. New Mexico utility PNM was approved by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) to acquire the Western Spirit transmission project in 2019. The Western Spirit transmission project was energized in late 2021. The project transmits 800 MW of wind energy. [23] In July 2020, Invenergy won a court ruling to acquire the 780 mile Grain Belt Express Clean Line. [24] The project will carry up to 4,000 MW of wind power from western Kansans to a substation in Kansas, where the energy will be distributed to the 11-state market of grid operator PJM. [24]
In 2018, Skelly joined investment bank Lazard as a senior advisor on renewables. [25]
In 2021 Skelly co-founded Grid United with Houston-based philanthropist John D. Arnold, a company focused on early stage development of early stage and high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission. [26] [27] [4] The goals of the company are to tie regional grids together to improve resiliency to climate-induced natural disasters, increase reliability of cheap renewable energy and reduce hazards to human health related to fossil fuel energy production. [4] Skelly serves as CEO. [27]
In October, 2021, Skelly was appointed to a two-year term on the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB). Skelly was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. [28] The SEAB meets quarterly and "provides advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Energy on the Administration's energy policies, the Department's basic and applied research and development activities, economic and national security policy, and on any other activities and operations of the Department of Energy, as the Secretary may direct." [28]
In November 2008, Skelly faced three-term incumbent John Culberson in the election for Texas' 7th district. Skelly's campaign received national attention for its fundraising efforts. [29] Ultimately, Skelly lost the election to Culberson by 42% to 56% of the vote, respectively. [30]
Michael served as a board member of LINK Houston. [31] LINK's mission is to advocate for an equitable public transit network in Houston, where owning a car is not a necessity to traverse the city. Lack of transportation is a barrier to opportunity, i.e. affordable housing, education, work, healthcare, and grocery shopping. Low housing costs in Houston are often offset by car and travel related expenses. Reducing bicycle and pedestrian involved car accidents is a priority of LINK through increased access and safety measures. [31]
Skelly served as board member for the nonprofit Houston Bike Share. Houston Bike Share operates Houston BCycle, a program operating 113 rental stations and 800 bicycles. Bike's can either be rented on as-needed basis via credit card kiosk or mobile app. [32]
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has proposed plans to expand highway I-45 through Houston. [33] [34] There has been widespread critique of the project concerning displaced businesses and households, increased flood risk, increased proximity of homes and schools to the highway, decreased air quality, disjunction of Bayou Parks Greenways trail system and high cost. [33] [35] Michael Skelly leads the Make I-45 Better Coalition, whose mission is to decrease aforementioned impacts of the proposed project. [35] Skelly has been quoted saying, "This is the biggest decision that Houston will make in 2020. In fact, it may be the biggest project in all of the 2020s." [33]
Skelly joined the Founding Advisory Board of Greentown Labs as they prepare to open their second location in Houston at the Rice Innovation District in spring 2021. Greentown labs is a Sommerville, Massachusetts-based startup incubator focused on cleantech and climatech. [36] [37]
Skelly is a member of the advisory board of Living Bank, a Houston-based organization that works to advance living organ donation to confront the shortage of organs needed for life-saving transplants. [9]
Skelly formerly served on the Houston Parks Board. [38] Over the past decade Houston Parks Board launched the Bayou Greenways 2020 to connect Houston's bayous with 150 miles of continuous trail. Houston voters in 2012 approved "Proposition B", which set aside $100 million for the project. [39] [40] Skelly recruited Prop B's campaign team and led the fundraising effort for the campaign. The Houston Parks Board raised another $120 million from other sources to support Bayou Greenways. The public-private partnership created 3,000 acres of green space in Houston with 60% of Houstonians living within 1.5 miles of the Greenways. [41] In an article penned by Skelly in the Houston Chronicle he states, "Bayou Greenways transcends parks, waterways and trails, these greenways have the potential to become one of our most powerful threads weaving together our city's social fabric." [42]
Lina Hidalgo is the county judge for Harris County, Texas, the third largest county in the United States. She is the first woman and the first Latinx person to be elected to the position. In 2018, Hidalgo named Skelly as a co-chair for her Talent Advisory Group. The group's role is to advise Judge-Elect Hidalgo on the naming of select, high-level staff within the County Judge's office.[ citation needed ]
In 2013, Skelly and his wife, Anne Whitlock, purchased the historic Firehouse No. 2 in the East End of Houston. The firehouse was built in 1910 and was decommissioned in the 1980s and fell into disrepair over the next 30 years. The couple had been looking for a historic industrial building to convert into a residence and community space. In addition to the firehouse, the couple rescued 6 historic Victorians that were slated for demolition and moved them onto the property adjacent to the firehouse. After a two-year rehabilitation and renovation the firehouse and Victorians, Skelly and Whitlock moved into the firehouse in 2015. The downstairs serves as a community and events space and the upstairs is the couples' residence. One of the restored Victorians serves as a guesthouse for the couple and the others were put on the market. [43]
When Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas in 2017, Anne and Michael were ferrying Harvey victims from the hospital to the George R. Brown convention center in Houston. [44] As reported in the Washington Post the couple came across an immigrant family that was forced out of their home by the floodwaters. Knowing the convention center was rapidly filling and the firehouse stands on high ground and was at no risk of flooding, Michael and Anne opened their home to the family - a single mother and her two children, the woman's brother and a family friend. [44] Michael posted on Facebook, urging friends to take in other hurricane refugees, helping to start a chain reaction of aid to stranded families. [44] T
Skelly is known to be a prolific fundraiser - for the boards and businesses he has worked for, and political causes.[ citation needed ]
Skelly bundled donations for the Biden 2020 campaign, and is active in organizing events focused on climate action and a renewable energy future. He has hosted fundraising calls directly with Biden on the topic. [45] Skelly was featured as a speaker for the Give Green event, "Building National Transmission". [46]
Skelly has a number of published articles on renewable energy, urban issues and infrastructure including:
Wind power is a renewable energy source that is generally used to generate electricity via wind turbines. With a total installed wind capacity of around 9,100 megawatts (MW), wind power constitutes 5% of Australia's total primary energy supply and 35% of its renewable energy supply. Abundant wind resources are located close to residential areas in the southern parts of the country and on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range in the east, with approximately half of Australia's wind farms located around the coast.
Wind power in Texas, a portion of total energy in Texas, consists of over 150 wind farms, which together have a total nameplate capacity of over 30,000 MW. If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state. According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), wind power accounted for at least 15.7% of the electricity generated in Texas during 2017, as wind was 17.4% of electricity generated in ERCOT, which manages 90% of Texas's power. ERCOT set a new wind output record of nearly 19.7 GW at 7:19 pm Central Standard Time on Monday, January 21, 2019.
China is the world leader in wind power generation, with the largest installed capacity of any nation and continued rapid growth in new wind facilities. With its large land mass and long coastline, China has exceptional wind power resources: Wind power remained China's third-largest source of electricity at the end of 2021, accounting for 7.5% of total power generation.
Making up over 62% of the state's generated electricity in 2022, wind power is the largest source of electricity generation in Iowa. In 2020, over 34 billion kWh of electrical energy was generated by wind power. As of 2022, Iowa has over 12,200 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity with over 6,000 wind turbines, ranking second and third in the nation below Texas respectively.
EDP Renewables North America and its subsidiaries develop, construct, own, and operate wind farms and solar parks throughout North America.
The Gunning Wind Farm project is a wind farm development in the Cullerin Range, north-east of Gunning, in New South Wales. Wind turbines in the farm are visible from the Hume Highway.
A super grid or supergrid is a wide-area transmission network, generally trans-continental or multinational, that is intended to make possible the trade of high volumes of electricity across great distances. It is sometimes also referred to as a "mega grid". Super grids typically are proposed to use high-voltage direct current (HVDC) to transmit electricity long distances. The latest generation of HVDC power lines can transmit energy with losses of only 1.6% per 1,000 km.
The electricity sectors of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are integrated and supply 2.5 million customers from a combination of coal, peat, natural gas, wind and hydropower. In 2022, 34 TWh were generated. In 2018 natural gas produced 51.8%, while wind turbines generated 28.1%, coal 7%, and peat 6.8% of Ireland's average electricity demand. In 2020 wind turbines generated 36.3% of Ireland's electrical demand, one of the highest wind power proportions in the world. While the United Kingdom was one of the first countries in the world to deploy commercial nuclear power plants, the island of Ireland has never had a nuclear power plant built on either side of the Irish border. Nuclear power in Ireland was discussed in the 1960s and 1970s but ultimately never phased in, with legislation now in place explicitly forbidding its introduction.
At the end of 2016, the installed capacity for wind power in Minnesota was 3,500 megawatts (MW). Wind power generated nearly 18 percent of Minnesota’s electricity in 2016, ranking sixth in the nation for wind energy as a share of total electricity generation.
Wind power in Illinois provided nearly 10% of the state's generated electrical power in 2020 powering 1,231,900 homes. At the end of 2020, Illinois had 6,300 megawatts (MW) of wind power installed, ranking fifth among states for installed wind turbine capacity. An additional 1,100 MW of wind power was under construction across the state at the end of 2020.
In 2016, Arizona had 268 megawatts (MW) of wind powered electricity generating capacity, producing 0.5% of in-state generated electricity.
South Australia is a leader in utility-scale renewable energy generation, and also produces gas and uranium for electricity generation. Gas production is mostly concentrated in the Cooper Basin in the state's north-east. Gas is delivered from these fields by pipeline to users interstate and to Port Adelaide where it fuels three separate gas-fired power plants. Uranium is also mined in South Australia, though nuclear power generation is prohibited nationally. The Olympic Dam mine is the world's single largest known deposit of uranium and represents 30% of the world's total uranium resource. Many utility-scale wind farms and solar farms have been commissioned during the 21st century and geology with potential for geothermal energy has also been identified but is yet to be developed.
Latvia is a net energy importer. Primary energy use in Latvia was 49 TWh, or 22 TWh per million persons in 2009. In 2018, electricity consumption per capita was 3731 kWh.
Variable renewable energy (VRE) or intermittent renewable energy sources (IRES) are renewable energy sources that are not dispatchable due to their fluctuating nature, such as wind power and solar power, as opposed to controllable renewable energy sources, such as dammed hydroelectricity or biomass, or relatively constant sources, such as geothermal power.
Wind power in the Philippines accounts for a total of 443MW as of 2020 according to the Department of Energy, covering about 1.6% of the country's total installed capacity for both renewable and non-renewable energy sources. When it comes to existing renewable energy sources in the country, wind power has a total share of approximately 5.4%. Despite currently being a small contributor to the country's energy mix, wind power installations have increased from 33MW in 2012-2013 to 337MW in 2014, 427MW in 2015-2018, and 443MW in 2019-2021. Moreover, the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Plan (NREP) 2020-2040 aims to commission 2,345MW of total wind power capacity by 2030. There has been a setback, however, as the wind power industry was moderately affected by COVID, particularly in the import of wind turbines. Due to this, several projects such as the Aklan onshore wind project got delayed. To further drive the wind energy sector in the country, an increased demand for renewable energy, greater government commitments, and reduced wind power tariff are needed.
Wind power in Tennessee has most potential in East Tennessee along the North Carolina border. The state has not passed renewable portfolio standard legislation and there is just one utility-scale wind farm with 15 operating turbines and previously 3 test turbines. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), based in Knoxville, imports wind-generated electricity into its service area which includes Tennessee. US Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee is an outspoken critic of wind power.
Wind power in Kentucky has limited potential for development within the state since there are generally low wind speeds, though there are specific locations where it can be effective. The state has not passed renewable portfolio standard legislation and there are no commercial-scale wind turbines. Kentucky may benefit from the development of wind power in Tennessee, an adjoining state with which it is collaborating, and from efforts by the Tennessee Valley Authority to both develop and import wind-generated electricity into the region.
Plains & Eastern Clean Line was a proposed 720-mile (1,160 km), 4,000 MW long-distance HVDC transmission line to bring wind power in Oklahoma to consumers in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States via the existing Tennessee Valley Authority grid. It would have termini at Guymon, Oklahoma and northeast of Memphis, Tennessee and an intermediate converter station in Pope County, Arkansas. The U.S. Department of Energy is a partner in the development, its first exercise of section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, under which Congress authorized the department to promote electric transmission for clean energy. The project has been credited with bringing renewable energy to part of the country that previously had not had access.
Wind power in Missouri has an installed capacity of 959 MW from 499 turbines, as of 2016. This provided 1.29% of the state's electricity production.
Enel North America is an American company headquartered in Andover, MA, United States. One of the renewable energy operators in North America, it was formed as a subsidiary of the global utility Enel S.p.A. in 2000. It has operations in the United States and Canada through its renewables and energy services businesses, with a portfolio including over 9.6 GW of renewable capacity, 160,000 EV charging stations, 4.7 GW of demand response capacity and 14 utility-scale battery energy storage systems, totaling 1,416 MWh of capacity under construction or in operation. It serves a customer base of over 4,500 businesses, utilities, and cities in North America.
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