Understanding the Public and Private Sectors
By: Cecelia Grasseschi, CAS/Wharton ’22
ACN Worldwide – Shanghai, China
As an intern for the Strategic Investments division, I am researching and creating Summary Reports on Wind Power for countries within the European Union. At first glance, this was a straightforward and unassuming project, but after more than a month of working with ACN Worldwide and my intern team, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
ACN Worldwide prides itself on producing and supplying free research about many countries and topics for anyone who wants to learn. They believe in educating and sharing resources freely, while also showing potential clients, from whichever country or industry, that they are always knowledgeable of the market they are about to enter. Additionally, they are publishing the research with credit given to each intern, which is an incredibly exciting opportunity as a young professional. My papers are free for all to read on the ACN Worldwide website with my headshot on the cover.
To date, I’ve completed research on Wind Power in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland with Germany as my next country to conquer. As the E.U. has set universal standards for climate change, including carbon neutrality by 2050 and a reduction of at least 55% of greenhouse gas emissions as compared to levels in 1990, many countries are focusing on developing new renewable energy sources to meet these targets, as well as country-specific targets they’ve set for themselves in their Climate Policy Plans. Of actions being taken, many countries are relying on the development of new wind power infrastructure to reach their climate targets. Wind power is a rich resource, with high potentials, especially as new technologies for offshore wind farms have been developed over the past years.
One of the best parts of this project is discovering how many different issues impact the development of wind energy. One of the greatest wind producers in the E.U. with incredibly high offshore wind potentials, Ireland’s wind developments has stalled. Due to their weak electricity grid, newer wind farms are having trouble connecting to the grid or are having to limit their production so as to not overpower the grid, resulting in over a million megawatt-hours of lost energy. Additionally, with the U.K. departure from the E.U., Ireland has even fewer connections possible to continental Europe and the European Power Exchange. There are so many variables that will influence a country’s trajectory for wind energy and even more than will influence investors’ decisions.
Doing research for different countries – reading their climate targets, learning about their renewable energy sector, seeing their economic status, etc. – offers a completely new perspective for both policy-making and business. While it seems straightforward to find an innovative wind project in an area with high potentials, I’m learning that these decisions are far from simple, for both government agencies and private investors. I am fortunate to be contributing to helpful, free knowledge, as well as learning the business processes behind finding new projects worth offering investment in.
The Virtual Internships Abroad (VIA) program provides self-directed and motivated Penn undergraduate students the opportunity to gain a fully funded professional work experience over the summer with a global employer, with the added convenience of working remotely.