10 December 2021, Brussels – The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) today announced that Rebecca Williams, who was seconded to GWEC as Director of COP26, will join the organisation permanently to spearhead the growth of offshore wind around the world. She will take up the role of Global Head of Offshore Wind, and be responsible for leading GWEC’s efforts to accelerate the adoption of offshore wind around the world to meet the Net Zero challenge. 

Both IRENA and the IEA show that offshore wind must scale up by over 20 times from the current installed capacity of around 40GW to around 2TW by 2050 to meet the net zero challenge, while the Compact submitted by IRENA and GWEC to the United Nations calls for the installation of 380GW of offshore wind power by 2030.

Williams will take responsibility for a number of key initiatives which GWEC is leading or participating in, including the Ocean Energy Pathways initiative which will provide technical assistance and expert knowledge to governments and the Global Offshore Wind Alliance, which is being established by IRENA, the Danish Government and GWEC to increase ambition and share experience and learnings among governments. 

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC said: “As we saw from the unprecedented interest at COP26, offshore Wind is establishing itself as the key Energy Transition technology, and ambition from governments to adopt offshore wind is growing exponentially. Reaching these enormous targets is not impossible, but will require a gigantic common effort between industry, governments and communities. Rebecca has shown herself to be a highly effective advocate and leader through her organisation of the COP26 Wind Energy Coalition, and I can’t think of a better person than Rebecca to lead our offshore efforts. 

Williams is a renewable energy, climate change and energy transition expert.  She most recently led the wind industry’s programme of work on COP26 and the Wind Are You In campaign. Prior to this she headed up RenewableUK’s policy team, where she worked to develop policy and engage key stakeholders in the context of the UK’s world beating Offshore Wind programme. She specialises in market design, working closely with governments and regulators to effect change that will deliver renewable energy at the scale needed for net zero. Before joining RenewableUK, she worked on climate change and energy at the NGO WWF-UK, where she focussed on issues such as the  Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and a successful campaign to secure the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in the UK.”

Rebecca Williams, Global Head of Offshore Wind at GWEC added: “I am delighted to be joining GWEC permanently. During my secondment I have seen the organisation’s ability to make important progress in opening up markets for wind. Over the coming decade, offshore wind must establish itself as one of the key decarbonisation tools available to the world, providing skilled jobs and economic benefits for communities, while also working with exciting new sectors such as green hydrogen, and I want to play a role in this journey. I also want to thank RenewableUK for giving me the opportunity to play a role in supporting the successful growth of the UK’s wind market.”

Dan McGrail, CEO of RenewableUK said: “I’m grateful to Rebecca for her work helping to drive the policy successes that we’ve achieved in recent years at RenewableUK. Rebecca will bring a wealth of experience from the UK’s world-leading offshore wind sector to her new global role. We wish Rebecca every success and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with GWEC.”

Williams will officially join GWEC in her new role on the 15th December 2021.

About GWEC

Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) is a member-based organisation that represents the entire wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organisations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies. See more: www.gwec.net

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Alex Bath | Communications Director

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