EU RENEWABLE energy targets; the final report on the Transmission Access Review; important moves for microgeneration and heat; work progressing so well on the Glendoe hydro project that Scottish and Southern Energy is looking at more hydro projects; the launch of the Renewable Fuels Transport Obligation; the impending launch of Scotland’s Hydrogen Futures Study; frenetic activity in the wind, wave and tidal sectors – it’s certainly “all systems go” on the renewables front.
All-Energy ’08 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, on May 21-22, will focus on all of these and much more, such is the stature of what is now the largest renewables convention in the UK and the only location where new generation renewables can rub shoulders with the cutting edge of offshore oil&gas technologies and experience.
The opening morning sees a plenary session being addressed by the Westminster and Holyrood energy ministers – Malcolm Wicks MP and Jim Mather MSP – and by Liv Monica Stubholt, Norway’s state secretary for petroleum and energy; Ian Marchant, CEO Scottish and Southern Energy, and John Westwood, of Douglas-Westwood.
The last named will be setting the scene for a key session to be staged later in the day that will examine the effect of peak oil and the $100 barrel price on the renewable energy industry.
Other streams and sessions on May 21 deal with the countdown to the EU 2020 requirements (with Reijo Kempinnen, head of the European Commission Representation in the UK delivering a scene-setting opening address); skills – getting the right people (and All-Energy will have a “job board” feature area so all looking for a career in the industry are most welcome); offshore wind; low-carbon buildings and residential microgeneration; a BERR/UKTI session that looks at renewables solutions and market opportunities in the UK; bioenergy; renewables for communities; hydrogen and fuel cells; a session aimed at the farming community, and a wind health and safety workshop.
The second day has a similarly compelling opening plenary session and packed programme. Plenary session speakers include Dr David Clarke, CEO of the new Energy Technologies Institute; Ralph Alexander, an MD of Riverstone Holdings (a company recently in the news having, with AES Corporation, committed up to $1billion as part of a new joint venture to develop a global platform of utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects), and Dale Seymour, deputy secretary, energy, resources and major projects, department of primary industries, Victoria, Australia. And sessions that day include the Industry & Power Association’s topical view of the industry; carbon capture and storage; non-residential on-site renewables; wave and tidal; supply-chain issues; onshore wind; “the road to commercialisation”; grid and network issues; hydro; hydrogen and fuel cells, and country briefing sessions from many of the countries from which inward missions and exhibitors are drawn.
Attendance at both the exhibition and conference, organised by Media Generation Events and AECC, is free of charge to all with a business/professional interest in renewable energy. Online registration is open at www.all-energy.co.uk
