NOF board director Alan Lowdon has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours for services to UK and US offshore wind collaboration.
He joins RWE Renewables’ UK head of regulatory affairs Zoe Keeton in the latest New Year’s Honours list as a representative from the UK wind industry.
Lowdon is director of strategic development for the National Offshore Wind Institute in Massachusetts and professor in practice, as well as chair of the advisory board within Durham Energy Institute at Durham University.
He was previously chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Innovation Board and has also been a board director of NOF since 2015.
Lowdon built on his understanding of the US utilities market developed from his time in the water industry when he became director of technology and innovation at the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) in Blyth, Northumberland.
Establishing strategic relationships and a joint patent with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, he helped deliver the first offshore wind collaborations between the two countries’ national laboratories for offshore wind.
He was also part of the UK’s 2011 offshore wind mission to the US, which built links with the Department of Energy and highlighted the capabilities that were being developed in Britain to support the creation of a global renewable industry.
Lowdon was also involved in the due diligence of two early US offshore wind developments, Cape Wind off the coast Massachusetts and Fishermen’s Energy off the coast of New Jersey, while working for Mott MacDonald.
Having worked with the UK government to establish the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, Lowdon took on the role of interim CEO, further strengthening the links with the US, which more recently involved the creation of an Innovate UK-backed scheme to encourage US/UK SME R&D collaboration.
RWE Renewables’ UK head of regulatory affairs Zoe Keeton, also awarded an OBE, has worked with governments, industry bodies, key national stakeholders and companies across the sector to help forge the key policies responsible for shaping the UK’s expanding wind industry, RWE said.
She has also acted as an expert advisor in helping tackle barriers to future growth, such as aviation radar and grid, while helping facilitate the delivery of the UK’s Net Zero ambitions, the company said.
Keeton was also involved in the negotiation of the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal, which brokered a collaboration between the government and offshore wind industry.