Marianne Rodgers, Ph.D. is the Scientific Director at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada, located in North Cape, Prince Edward Island. She manages the research done to advance wind energy in Canada. She has been studying renewable energy for most of her career and worked at the University of Central Florida’s Solar Energy Center before moving to PEI. Marianne’s mission is to alleviate the effects of climate change and get more renewable energy on the grid.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into IT?

I grew up in rural Nova Scotia, got my Bachelor of Science degree at St.FX and then my PhD in Chemistry from Simon Fraser University in BC. I have been doing research in renewable energy for more than 20 years. I am not personally in the IT field, but IT is essential for many aspects of our research, for data analysis, machine learning algorithms, programming controllers, etc.

Can you describe your background and how you came to this point in your career? What’s your greatest accomplishment to this point?

When I was in grade 5, my teacher, Mr. Chisholm, told us about the limitations on fossil fuels and their impacts on climate change and, from that point on, my goal in life became to solve the energy crisis. I went to school and got my Bachelor’s and PhD degrees in Chemistry and did research in renewable energy. After graduating, I went to Florida where I worked for six years researching fuel cells, solar energy, and batteries. I wanted to come back to Canada and I saw a job advertisement at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada. I have been at WEICan for almost 9 years.

In my current role I get great satisfaction when I see that the research we are doing is making a difference in increasing the amount of renewable energy on the grid - whether that comes from other researchers at international conferences being excited to tell me they have been replicating our work, or utilities and system operators citing our results as they make decisions that will allow more penetration of renewable energy.

Tell us about your current role. What does your company do for what sort of customers? What sorts of problems are you solving for customers?

I am the Scientific Director and manage the research program at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada, located in North Cape, PEI. We are a non profit research institute whose mandate is to advance wind energy in Canada through research, testing, innovation, and collaboration.

We work with academia, government, turbine manufacturers and suppliers, and utilities and system operators to carry out research that will advance wind energy. We have real world operational data from our five wind turbines, solar array, and battery energy storage system that we view as a large laboratory to support research.

Some examples of research we have done/are doing:

• Use our infrastructure to carry out scenarios suggested by utilities and system operators to demonstrate the ability of renewable energy generators to support the grid.
• In collaboration with ExxonMobil we are testing their advanced lubricants in our turbines
• We have tested the durability of several different blade leading edge protections on the blades of our turbines

Can you tell us about a person who greatly influenced the success in your career?

I have been very lucky that I have had many great mentors throughout my career. It began with Dr. Palepu at St.FX who got me started in research and reinforced the value of hard work. Dr. Holdcroft and Dr. Shi at Simon Fraser University, and Dr. Fenton, Dr. Slattery, and Mr. Bonville from the Florida Solar Energy Center challenged me and gave me confidence to grow and develop successful research programs. I still learn and grow every day at my current position where our CEO, Mr. Harper helps me view the renewable energy industry beyond the researcher perspective, looking at financial, policy, and political implications.

What made you decide to call PEI home?

I have wanted to live in PEI my whole life. My mother was from PEI and I loved coming to PEI in the summers when I was a little girl. I was delighted to see this job open up in PEI. I love living close to my extended family. PEI has always felt like home to me.

What is your favourite part about living and working in PEI?

I think, because PEI is an island, they have been forced to be environmentally conscious. Lack of space for landfills required PEI to become leaders in waste management, composting, and recycling. Until the 1970s PEI’s electricity came from the mainland and was relatively expensive, which imposed a strong need to reduce electricity and conserve energy (or was that just my grandmother?). Then in 1981 when WEICan’s precursor was formed, PEI took the lead in Canada on wind energy research, testing, and validation. Because we are a small island, research that takes place at WEICan can have a larger impact than it would other places. For example, on PEI our 10 MW wind farm is 5% of the rated capacity of wind and is important to the local utility whereas in a larger place it would be insignificant.

Where is your favourite place to work? Where is your favourite place to go to unwind from your work day?

I mainly work in WEICan’s North Cape office, which is my preference, so I can be close to our infrastructure and our staff.

To unwind, I often take walks along the beach in North Cape (in the summer!) or along the boardwalk in Summerside, where I live. I have a young family - a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy so they keep me busy when I’m not working!

What technology or tool are you excited about? What are you actively learning?

There are a few projects I’m excited about. We installed a solar array two years ago and now have two year’s worth of data to look at and really dig into to increase understanding of the realities of operating solar PV in PEI. We’ve also been seeing more and more icing events on our turbines over the past few years and we are putting in place some instrumentation that will really help us learn more about that. We have also had an increased focus on climate change in the past couple of years and I’m really enjoying being part of the group that is helping lead the energy transition that needs to happen to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

What is one thing that you hope to achieve in your future career?

I hope we see higher and higher levels of renewable energy on the grid. I’m excited to be a part of that.

Can you provide us with a way that people can find you online?

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianne-rodgers-56913921/

Company website: www.weican.ca
Company LinkedIn page: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/weican
Company Twitter: @windenergycan