In a timely return, the prestigious All-Energy event will arrive in Glasgow next month. By Andrew Collier

 

Greening our planet is going to be one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. The global drive to net zero carbon emissions is a critical part of the action plan and Scotland’s target of achieving this by the year 2045 is particularly ambitious.

Government, companies and third sector organisations will all be deeply involved in this seismic transition. There needs to be widespread discussion and debate about the best way forward. The scope for innovative thinking and business opportunity is immense.

Leading players, thinkers and influencers need to be able to meet and talk over progress and ideas in the right environment

On May 11 and 12, the prestigious All-Energy event returns to the SEC in Glasgow. This is the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy conference and exhibition. Alongside All-Energy is a parallel co-located event, Dcarbonise, which will look at built environment decarbonisation in general and heat decarbonisation in particular. Tilted towards the end user, it will focus on energy efficiency and a decrease in costs.

This is the first All-Energy gathering for two years and it is particularly special as it is celebrating its 21st anniversary, having launched in Aberdeen back in the winter of 2001.

The event features a stellar line up of speakers, with the opening plenary session featuring an address by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Alok Sharma, the COP26 President, still hard at work on implementing the Glasgow Climate Pact, will send a video message to All-Energy attendees.

This opening session will be chaired by Keith Anderson, CEO of the energy giant ScottishPower. Other speakers will include Johnathan Brearley, 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; George Gillespie, Executive Director of Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability at Glasgow City Council; and Professor Karen Turner, Director of the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Energy Policy, will also speak at this event.

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The plenary session on the second day will examine decarbonising the British power system by 2035. With this date now just 13 years away, huge effort to meet it is going to be needed right across the energy industry. 

This event will examine what is actually in place at present and what still needs to be delivered. The Chair will be Matthew Knight, Head of Market Development for Siemens Energy UK. 

Chris Stark, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, will discuss the provision of renewable electricity by 2035 and why this is vital in order to achieve a new zero economy by the UK target’s date of 2050, which is slightly later than Scotland’s 2045 target. 

He is also expected to discuss the growing demand for electricity to help in the areas of heat and transport.

Guy Newey, the Director of Strategy and Performance at the independent innovation agency Energy Systems Catapult, will talk on how everything combines to make a decarbonised energy system possible, while Lindsay McQuade, CEO of ScottishPower Renewables, will take a look at delivering renewable electricity.

The conference’s overall programme across the two days is designed to be thought-provoking and inspirational and to help visitors and exhibitors glean invaluable information on everything that is happening in the renewable and low carbon energy sectors.

In total, there will be some 500 experts speaking at All-Energy and Dcarbonise, including specialists in every form of renewable energy. Likewise the exhibitions at both events will feature up to 250 companies showcasing a wide range of solutions.

The All-Energy gathering will have the strap line Engineering A Net Zero Future. It will cover all forms of renewable energy generation, including solar; on and offshore wind; marine energy such as wave and tidal stream; hydropower; and bioenergy, including biomass, biogas, biofuel and waste to energy.

It will take in projects of all sizes ranging from networks and the grid through to energy systems, finance and funding, hydrogen, energy storage, community and local energy and more. Five sessions will be held at the event covering offshore wind alone as well as a one day show floor theatre. Some of these have attracted winners in both the ScotWind and – south of the border – the Round 4 licencing rounds.

Discussions will take place on these rounds and on future ones as well as on supply chain opportunities and challenges. Two conference sessions will be held examining floating wind and there will be a separate session on what will come next in offshore transmission.

Speakers will come from a number of organisations including Ofgem, National Grid ESO, OceanWinds and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Onshore wind and energy systems are topics each featuring four sessions. An energy systems address on the subject of Security Supply In The Future - Zero Carbon Electricity System will be hosted by Professor Keith Bell of Strathclyde University.

Hydrogen will also feature, as it will at the Dcarbonise event, with sector specific programmes. New sessions for this year reflecting the needs and demands of the sector will include Skills and Training, A Just Transition, Supply Chain Decarbonisation and Island Energy.

There will also be a session masterminded by the Net Zero Technology Centre at which Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson MSPL will speak as well as events revolving around finance and funding organised by Greenbackers Investment Capital. Innovate UK will look at new subjects and there will even be a session featuring Canadian and Italian expertise. Additional attractions will include a Meet The Developer event, a civic reception and a giant networking evening at the Glasgow Science Centre.

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.