Zoë Keeton: Crowning 20 years in the renewables sector

Zoë Keeton OBE , RWE Renewables’ UK Head of Regulatory Affairs, has recently been recognised as an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for her 20 years’ of service to UK’s renewable energy sector. We asked her what excites her about the renewables up until this day and, of course, about her day at Windsor Castle. 

Congratulations on being recognised as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)! How was your day receiving the award at Windsor Castle? 

Zoë Keeton: It was a truly special day. Prince Charles, who for many decades has been a leading campaigner on climate change, took a few minutes to talk with me about the importance of renewable energy and the progress that has been made on deployment.

As if meeting royalty was not enough, it was a fantastic opportunity to rub shoulders with some fascinating individuals, including Olympians and people leading work in the charitable sector. In particular I was incredibly fortunate to meet Sir David Attenborough, as he arrived at the ceremony to receive his 2nd knighthood. 

The award is for services to the Renewables Energy sector, can you tell us more about some of the work that you have done?

Throughout my 20 year career with RWE, the company has been incredibly supportive by allowing me to tackle a broad range of subjects and even undertake a secondment into government. 

I have been privileged to work on issues such as how to take nascent technologies through to commercial level deployment via an early support scheme the Renewables Obligation, ensuring that wind farms and aviation radar can operate in harmony, setting planning guidelines that ensure that environmental impacts are proportionate, delivering unprecedented technology cost reduction via the Contract for Difference (CfD), and more recently examining how we can optimise our grid network to accommodate large quantities of renewable generation.

What achievement are you most proud of? 

Working on the UK’s Offshore Wind Sector Deal Agreement, as it was a game changer, which transformed the way we work with government and enabled innovations. 

For the first time, rather than speaking about our individual projects, industry worked together to create a common vision of the opportunities the offshore wind industry could create for the UK and the roadmap to get there. 

How has the industry changed in your eyes over the last 20 years? 

The speed of growth and innovation in our industry has been exponential. It exceeds anything I would have imagined 5 or 10 years ago, let alone 20 years ago when I was working on North Hoyle, one of the UK’s first offshore wind farms. That 90MW wind farm generates enough power to supply the equivalent of 50,000 UK homes. Today the UK is working towards 40GW of offshore wind by 2030, enough to supply every home.  

…and finally what excites you most about the renewables industry today?

The thing that excites me most is meeting some of the many talented and passionate individuals joining the sector, it is them who will ensure that the trend for growth and innovation will continue. On a daily basis there are stories about new developments or applications; robotics in the operation and maintenance of offshore wind projects and more adding to this list every day.