00:00Hi everyone, I'm coming to you today from beautiful Gippsland in Victoria, Australia.
00:04I'm Peter Killian and I'm extremely proud to be recognised as an icon of change
00:08and it is an honour to receive an Icons of Change International Award for 2026.
00:13I dedicate this award in recognition to all my fellow electrical engineers
00:16working in the field of offshore wind and bests around the world.
00:20I also want to congratulate all the other individuals around the world
00:22who for 2026 have been recognised as an icon of change
00:25for their contributions to their respective industries
00:28and commitments to the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
00:33As a registered and chartered professional electrical engineer,
00:36all of my career I've been working in the industry for clean electrical energy solutions
00:39and as such, my work has been contributing to the United Nations'
00:43Sustainable Development Focus Area, Lucky Number 7, Affordable and Clean Energy
00:47and inherently the Sustainable Development Focus Area 13, Climate Action.
00:53Starting back in 2008 as a Power Academy Scholar, Engineering Intern in the UK,
00:58I spent the first seven years of my career designing and building solutions
01:02as part of the offshore wind generation industry in Europe.
01:05Migrating to Australia over nine years ago now in 2017
01:08and with no offshore wind sector out here,
01:11I continued my commitment to clean energy solutions
01:14through the implementation of battery energy storage systems,
01:16or BESS as it's better well known.
01:19BESS is a key enabler for renewable generation in supporting the energy transition
01:23and it supports the supply and demand balance against the inherent variable renewable generation.
01:29Renewable energy can only be produced when the wind blows or the sun shines
01:33and this doesn't always align with our energy demands.
01:36BESS captures excess renewable generation and delivers that energy
01:39when renewable generation falls short.
01:42All in all, keeping our grid stable, secure and reliable
01:45whilst allowing energy needs to be produced from a clean, sustainable resource.
01:50I am currently a Technical Director for Energy Storage and Renewables at GHD
01:54and the work me and my team at GHD do is heavily focused on supporting our clients
01:59to develop and realise clean electrical energy projects.
02:02This constitutes design, technical advisory, owner's engineer
02:06and construction management support.
02:08Supporting our clients from inception through procurement
02:10and to construction, handover and operation.
02:13As one of Australia's top best specialists,
02:16I lead our teams to ensure compliant and robust solutions are realised.
02:21As a recognised leader and in alignment with this year's United Nations
02:25declared International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development,
02:28I am also involved in mentoring and developing our graduate and junior engineers
02:32to help shape them into the best engineers they can be
02:35and ensure the continued realisation of sustainable clean energy solutions.
02:40Further to this, GHD this year celebrates 10 years of the GHD STEM Pathways Programme,
02:45providing a look into what GHD do and what career pathways are available
02:48to the Year 10 students that participate.
02:51I am particularly proud to lead the STEM Programme out of my local office year on year
02:55and inspire the youth of today in becoming leaders of tomorrow
02:58and maintaining continuation of a workforce that designs and builds sustainable,
03:02clean energy solutions for the future.
03:05Once again, thanks to the Icons of the Change Committee for selecting me
03:08as a recipient of the Icons of the Change Award for 2026.
03:11Here's to a sustainable, affordable, clean energy future
03:15and combating climate change.
03:16Cheers.
03:17Cheers.
03:18Cheers.
03:28Cheers.
03:32Cheers.
03:35Cheers.
03:35Cheers.
03:35Cheers.
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