NOVEMBER 20248IN MY OPINIONBy Jim Helvig, P.E., Vice President of Operations, Dashiell CorporationTHE EVOLUTION AND INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLE ENERGYJim Helvig, P.E., Vice President of Operations at Dashiell Corporation, Madison Operations, has been in the utility and renewable energy industry for over 24 years. He holds a BSEE from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and has 25 years of practical military and utility industry leadership experience. Before that, Jim worked in the construction and land development industry. He has held every engineering, project management, and leadership position, from Graduate Engineer to President, and has applied his previous experiences to effectively develop a culture that keeps the end in mind. The renewable industry has provided one of the most exciting, yet challenging, opportunities for our industry in the past few decades. In the early 2000s, the industry was primarily focused on incorporating wind turbines into our generation mix. The federal government incentivized the developers through non-renewing subsidies that spurred developers to move quickly to bring clean energy to the grid. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) was one of the premier advocates for anyone interested in the opportunities associated with the wind industry and attracted a mix of developers, high and medium-voltage contractors, equipment manufacturers, consulting engineers, utility engineers, landowners who were all looking for how they fit into the incredible transformation that was underway. Interest in the industry was far-reaching and a significant hurdle was developing the infrastructure to bring wind Jim Helvig
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