Canadian Renewable Energy Association names new President and CEO

November 21, 2022

The Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA) today named Vittoria Bellissimo as its incoming President and CEO, effective October 31, 2022, replacing Robert Hornung who is retiring from the role.

“I am delighted to welcome Vittoria as the new President and CEO of CanREA,” said Jason Chee-Aloy, Chair of CanREA’s Board of Directors.

“Wind energy and solar energy are Canada’s lowest-cost sources of new electricity generation and, coupled with energy storage, will be critical to Canada’s efforts to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We are pleased that Vittoria will continue CanREA’s work to enable Canada to capitalize on its massive untapped renewable energy potential.”

Vittoria comes to CanREA after more than 10 years of working with electricity customers as the Executive Director of the Industrial Power Consumers Association of Alberta and almost 20 years in the electricity sector. Previously, she worked in renewable energy procurement at both the Ontario Ministry of Energy and the Ontario Power Authority.

“I am excited to take on this role at a time when Canada must dramatically increase its use of wind, solar and energy storage to meet its climate change commitments,” said Bellissimo.

“CanREA’s 300+ members are leaders in Canada’s energy transition, and I look forward to advocating on their behalf for the policy, regulatory and market changes required to enable the responsible, sustainable, and accelerated deployment of these technologies.”

Net-zero pathway studies consistently conclude that wind and solar energy must be the primary sources of new electricity generation in Canada. These sources are vital as we move to decarbonize and expand our electricity production to support greenhouse gas emission reductions across the economy in sectors like transportation, buildings, and heavy industry. This is because wind and solar energy are the lowest-cost sources of new electricity generation, new developments are scalable and can be rapidly deployed, and Canada has massive untapped wind and solar energy resources.

“In my 19+ years with CanREA and the Canadian Wind Energy Association, wind and solar energy have moved from the margins to the mainstream,” said CanREA’s outgoing President and CEO, Robert Hornung.

“I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to play a role in this transformation and confident that Vittoria and the excellent CanREA team will successfully advocate for Canada to take the steps required to make CanREA’s 2050 Vision a reality.”

CanREA’s 2050 Vision, Powering Canada’s Journey to Net-Zero, demonstrates that Canada will need to increase its installed wind and solar energy capacity ten-fold by 2050 to achieve its net-zero commitment.

“The CanREA Board would like to thank Robert Hornung for his many years of leadership and service to the industry and his role as the founding President and CEO of CanREA,” said Chee-Aloy. “We wish him the very best in his retirement and future endeavours.” CanREA members, and members of the media, can meet CanREA’s new CEO, Vittoria Bellissimo, at the Electricity Transformation Canada conference and exhibition in Toronto on October 26 to 28, 2022.