Publicly-owned clean energy generation company CleanCo has got its first permanent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – Dr Maia Schweizer. A geoscientist by education and an ex-Origin Energy senior executive, Schweizer will officially start with the Queensland, Australia based company on September 30, 2019.
Dr Schweizer will take over from Interim CEO Miles George who was at the helm of CleanCo for the past seven months. "The Board selected Maia for her proven ability to bring teams together and lead the development and delivery of business strategies in fast moving and changeable environments, all of which are skills required to deliver on CleanCo's challenging mandate," said CleanCo Chair Jacqui Walters while welcoming Dr Schweizer who also holds a PhD from Oxford University.
CleanCo will officially start trading in the national electricity market from October 31, 2019. The State Government of Queensland launched the new renewables-focused generator in September 2018. It has a mandate to secure up to 400 MW of new generation and storage capacity and is expected to bring down wholesale electricity prices by around AUD 7 ($4.89) per MWh on average.
Earlier in August 2019, the government shortlisted 10 projects under its Renewables 400 reverse auction program comprising solar and energy storage among other renewable projects. The final winners will be selected by CleanCo (see 10 Projects Shortlisted For Queensland RE Auction).