Brought to you by
ALL-ENERGY
May marks the timely return of the prestigious All-Energy exhibition and conference to Glasgow – which will once again also host the highly relevant secondary event Dcarbonise, focussing primarily on energy efficiency.
SUSTAINABILITY is at the centre of everything in the 21st century. As the world moves towards net zero carbon emissions, virtually every government and business is considering how to meet targets and make a real and measurable impact.
No-one can deal with the effects of climate change and the fast-moving shift to renewables in isolation. Great minds need to think and work together.
Opportunities for those involved to meet, discuss and hear from the sector’s leaders and influencers are hugely valuable and their importance is increasing.
A major gathering at Glasgow’s SEC next month will provide an unparalleled forum for positive reflection, innovation and change on the subject of the role of renewables and decarbonisation.
The All-Energy exhibition and conference will return to the venue on May 11 and 12 after a two year gap. It will be celebrating its 21st anniversary this year by pulling out all the stops, aiming for the best event in its history.
The co-located event, Dcarbonise, will enforce the message that energy efficiency helps cut costs. It will be tilted towards the end user and will bring together a diverse audience including commercial businesses, governments and the public sector, landlords, housing associations and property developers.
The aim is to connect these stakeholders in order to discuss new technologies and to shift thinking in the right direction so we can tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time. Registration for both gatherings is now open.
The Dcarbonise event will be exploring lowering carbon impact in order to improve sustainability.
This gathering is sponsored by the Scottish Government and Energy Saving Trust. Its exhibits will focus on the built environment in general and heat in particular as well as on the decarbonisation of transport. There will be a display of low carbon vehicles and transport technologies.
The conference is of huge importance. All-Energy and Dcarbonise are the UK’s largest low carbon energy and renewables events. Delegates will be able to meet, network and make connections as well as being inspired by the many speakers and discussions taking place.
The atmosphere will be charged and dynamic. Up to 250 companies will be featured in the exhibition and the conference programme includes some extremely high profile speakers.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, will kick off the plenary session and there will also be a message from Alok Sharma, the UK Government minister who acted as President of last year’s COP26 gathering in the city. Other speakers will include Jonathan Brearlet, Chief Executive of the regulator Ofgem; David Bunch, Country Chair of Shell UK; and Steve Scrimshaw, Vice President of Siemens Energy UK and Ireland.
Rachel McEwan, Chief Sustainability Officer at SSE and Professor Karen Turner, Director of the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Energy Policy, will also speak. The session will be chaired by Keith Anderson, CEO of the energy giant ScottishPower.
Ms Sturgeon is expected to use her address to set the scene not just for the conference but also for the months and years ahead. The Scottish Government’s ambition of reaching net zero carbon by 2045 is a highly challenging one and she may give some indications as to how it plans to meet this target.
A spokesperson for the event said: “All-Energy has long had a reputation for a truly inspirational conference programme designed to help visitors and exhibitors keep in touch with all that is happening in the renewable and low carbon energy sectors. Add in the topics covered by the co-located Dcarbonise and you have a compelling mixture featuring luminaries from government, industry and academia.
“The speakers will stand behind lecterns in 18 theatres over the two days – 11 are conference rooms at the SEC where more than 50 sessions will be held and the remaining seven, homing in on nine topics, are floor show theatres.”
Two of the Dcarbonise conference programmes will also feature ministerial keynote addresses. One will be from Patrick Harvie, responsible in Scotland for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants’ rights.
Jenny Gilruth, the Minister for Transport in the Scottish Government, will launch the transport decarbonisation programme. There will be a full conference session and two days of presentations in a floor show theatre on this topic.
The strapline chosen for this year’s All-Energy event is 'Engineering A Net Zero Future'.
The overall aim of the gathering is to focus on renewable energy and its heritage. The exhibition hall will be packed with innovative solutions to meet the challenges facing renewables development both at home and overseas. So far exhibitors from 14 different countries have booked space.
Jonathan Heastie is Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine at RX, the company which owns and organises the events. He says that exhibitors are keen to get down to business. “I don’t think we have ever had such a large number of superb abstracts submitted to the conference”, he adds.
“Both exhibition and conference combine to demonstrate how eager the sectors we serve are to get back down to business as usual.
“The duo of events will be combined with serious learning and above all, face-to-face networking.”
The ScotWind leasing round announcement made earlier this year caused a lot of excitement, Mr Heastie says, and work is now under way on successful Round 4 bids south of the border and on Celtic Sea activity.
“Then there is the phenomenal interest in hydrogen. And there’s the acknowledgement that renewables have real pulling power when it comes to generating electricity and in the increasingly vital need for security of supply.”
The All-Energy event conference streams and sessions will cover all forms of renewable energy.
These include both on and offshore wind, solar, marine energy, hydropower and various forms of bioenergy including biomass, biogas, biofuel and waste to energy.
The organisers believe that both the All-Energy and Dcarbonise events will have a particular resonance on this occasion as they come just months after the UN’s massively important COP26 summit in Glasgow. “The show has come a long way in its 21 years,”says Jonathan Heastie.
“The very first one was held in thick snow in Aberdeen in February 2001 and it looked at the wet and windy elements of renewables. Over the years, it has expanded to cover more renewable sources. We will be celebrating our return and the anniversary by staging a superb exhibition and a far-ranging conference.”
He said he believed that with COP26 still fresh in everyone’s minds, it made sense to open with a powerful plenary session looking at the Glasgow Climate Pact and energising the race to net zero.
“The day two plenary session will discuss and debate decarbonising the GB power system by 2035, and then the conference will break into those 11 parallel streams and seven show floor conference theatres. It is going to be buzzing and we look forward to seeing everyone there.”
----------------------------------
Expect energetic debate and visionary ideas from leading industry voices
THE energy transition is going to require the talents of a huge number of people working in a large variety of different disciplines.
It should come as no surprise, then, that some 500 different experts will be taking part at the forthcoming SEC event.
The subjects they discuss will cover every form of renewable energy and all Dcarbonise topics.
Those taking part will include high level representatives from industry as well as from the government, the public sector and academia.
One of the leading experts from business will be Lindsay McQuade, CEO of ScottishPower Renewables, pictured right, and a hugely important figure in the sector north of the border. Another participant, Chris Stark, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, is a respected authority on this subject.
Academic figures taking part will include Professor Jim McDonald, who is Principal and Vice Chancellor at Strathclyde University. Students taking PhDs will find useful information in a special research hub.
Also featured at the event will be leading figures who are helping cities, regions and other places to decarbonise.
They include people such as Polly Billington, the CEO of UK100, a network of local leaders working to make the transition to net zero a reality; and government officials such as Kersti Berge, who is the Scottish Government’s Director Energy and Climate Change.
If the shift to net zero is to take place efficiently and effectively, then it clearly needs to be financed properly. This subject will be discussed by leading figures such as Mark Munro, Head of Investments at the Scottish National Investment Bank.
A number of working engineers will explore the technical aspects of the move to renewable energy and net zero by discussing a number of ingenious solutions.
Discussion panels will explore a broad range of areas. One will examine offshore wind, considering the merits of the two major leasing rounds carried out in the last 12 months, looking at their advantages and considering if they were lacking in ambition.
Participants in this session are scheduled to include Charlie Jordan, Offshore Wind Director for the UK and Ireland and ScottishPower Renewables; Bless Kuri, Head of System Planning and Investment at SSEN Transmission; and Joanne Allday, Strategic Business Development Manager at the Port of Cromarty Firth.
Another session on offshore wind will look at the supply chain and skills, focusing on opportunities and challenges as well as training.
Those taking part will include Brian McFarlane, Co-chair of the Scottish Offshore Wind Energy Council, and Melanie Onn, Deputy CEO of RenewableUK.
Panels and discussions will also take place on hydrogen and fuel cells, on energy storage including the future role of storage batteries, and on energy systems and integration and the move to net zero, including the use of hydrogen.
Security of supply will also be discussed, as will solar and marine energy, onshore wind, bioenergy, waste to energy and much more.
www.all-energy.co.uk/theherald
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here