Founded in 2001, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is a national nonprofit organization that unites finance, policy, and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. ACORE is the focal point for collaborative advocacy across the renewable energy sector, supported by members spanning renewable energy technologies and constituencies, including developers, manufacturers, top financial institutions, major corporate renewable energy buyers, grid technology providers, utilities, professional service firms, academic institutions, and allied nonprofit groups.
ACORE accomplishes much of its work by convening key stakeholders, facilitating partnerships, educating senior officials on important policies, publishing research and analysis on pressing issues, and undertaking strategic outreach on the policies and financial structures essential to renewable energy growth.
Accelerating America’s transition to a renewable energy economy.
ACORE’s diverse, pan-renewable membership, valuable in-house research, influential communications arm, and effective engagement and collaborative leadership on the policies that matter most make it a uniquely impactful advocate for America’s renewable energy sector and the modern, decarbonized grid it is determined to build.
Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
Mike Eckhart worked at the leading edge of the energy field for over three decades, conducting pioneering studies on renewable energy for the Carter Administration and working for major energy corporations. In 1995, he founded the Solar Bank Initiative to finance sustainable solar energy in Brazil, India, and South Africa. He was named “Renewable Energy Man of the Year” in India in 1998 and later was named U.S. Chair of the World Council of Renewable Energy. In 2001, along with other U.S. leaders, Mike formed ACORE as the way to create a broad-based renewables community in the United States and build international partnerships. This approach was intended to disrupt the pattern of each type of renewable energy having its own small lobby or trade group. Mike founded ACORE to unite representatives of all renewables around common interests, yielding more effective results. Mike left ACORE in 2011 to become the Global Head of Environmental Finance and Sustainability at Citigroup. There have been several leadership transitions since then; the current President and CEO is Greg Wetstone as of December 2015. [i] [i] http://acore.org/resources/news-media/press-releases/5848-gregory-wetstone-to-be-new-president-and-ceo-at-the-american-council-on-renewable-energy