THREE MORE WEBINARS FOR POPULAR ALL-ENERGY/DCARBONISE SERIES

With eight successful webinars under their corporate belt, All-Energy and Dcarbonise have a further three programmed for July, featuring offshore floating wind; the need for an inclusive transition to net zero, and solar PV. Registration is now open at https://forum.all-energy.co.uk all are free to attend.

“We’re thrilled by the very positive response there has been to the series and look forward to meeting (virtually of course) many more delegates on 15 and 16 July,” said Event Director Peter Bloor of Reed Exhibitions. “I’d like to thank our chairs, speakers, sponsors and our audience members for their support.

“The eight we have held so far, which in June embraced ‘Meet the Minister’; ‘The resurgence of onshore wind’; ‘Speed and scale’ and ‘Community and local energy: A beacon for 2030’, have attracted just over 6,500 registrations and high numbers of attendance on the day and for ‘on demand’ viewing too. This enables those who weren’t able to join us to catch up on what they had missed, and we also see attendees returning for an ‘encore’

“We have also received positive feedback on the relevance of the issues being covered and the high level of speakers we have attracted. Webinars are now a permanent fixture on our calendar leading up to the ‘live’ event in November and beyond! The first eight are online at https://forum.all-energy.co.uk/category/on-demand and can all be watched free of charge.”

Floating offshore wind on 15 July

From 10:00-11:30 on Wednesday 15 July ‘Floating Offshore Wind: Breaking out into deeper waters and new territories’ will be under the webinar spotlight with Allan MacAskill of Kincardine Offshore Windfarm; Rhodri James of Equinor; Una Brosnan of Atkins (and Friends of Floating Wind) and Ralph Torr of ORE Catapult’s Floating Offshore Wind Centre of Excellence sharing their views.

As the session Chair, Maf Smith, Director of Lumen Energy & Environment explains: “Success in fixed offshore wind shows what our industry is capable of. As we accelerate global efforts to decarbonise our power system, more and more countries are looking to their marine resource as a power source. In leading markets like the UK and the rest of Europe, floating offshore wind offers the chance to scale up our ambition and bring in new sites for development, and in newer markets around the globe development in shallow waters is not possible meaning floating offshore wind needs to be ready to move as these markets open up.

“This all points to rapid acceleration of our floating offshore wind sector. In this session, our industry experts will give an update on floating offshore wind both here and around the globe, showcasing efforts to bring down cost, standardise our delivery model, and grow out stable markets that support these longer term ambitions to go deeper.”

Keeping it real: An inclusive transition to net zero

On Thursday 16 July (10:00-11:30) attention turns to ‘Keeping it real: An inclusive transition to net zero’ sponsored by The Scottish Government and SP Energy. It will be chaired by Guy Jefferson, Customer Service Director of SP Energy Networks (who will also turn speaker during the webinar) and feature Jamie Macleod, Team Leader, Consumer Policy and Intervention Team, The Scottish Government; Mark Hull, Head of Innovation, Community Energy Scotland; Peter Dennis of Ecotricity; and Matthew Lipson, Business Leader Consumer Insight Services, Energy Systems Catapult.

The focus of this 90-minute webinar will be on the practical road to net zero from the consumer and community perspective, using first-hand experience and learning from those delivering local energy projects and consumer engagement.

Engineering solutions such as renewable energy technologies, battery solutions and digitisation often take centre stage in discussions around ‘how we tackle climate change’ or ensure a green recovery from COVID-19 as STEM, more so than STEAM (A : arts and creative talents) subjects, have been pushed to the fore as a means of preparing the future workforce for what’s required.

But what will all of this mean for consumers and their communities, particularly those described as living in vulnerable circumstances, as we plan our road to recovery from the impacts of a global pandemic and look toward a net zero future?

What softer-skills, local advice and knowledge and large-scale engagement is required to ensure that, genuinely, no one will be left behind and that individuals and their communities – who often hold the local answers to local problems – can play an active role in tackling climate change whilst maximising benefits and cost-efficiencies from SMART innovation in an informed and locally sensitive way.

40GW solar deployment by 2030

The final webinar in the July trio is ‘40GW solar deployment by 2030’. Chris Hewett, Chief Executive of the Solar Trade Association will be in the chair and speakers on the theme will be Chris Clark of the Emtec Group (and Chair of STA Scotland); Christelle Barnes, Country Manager – UK, SolarEdge; Michael Moore, Development Manager UK & Ireland, Elgin Energy; Michele Tagliapietra, Energy Storage & Solar Energy Consultant at DNV GL; and Hannah Staab who leads Natural Power’s European Advisory team.

They will all take as their theme: “Solar is a powerful job creator and an inherently rapid technology to deploy, as well as one of the cheapest forms of power generation today. With the right policies the solar industry can support the UK recovery by creating thousands of skilled jobs, adding billions in value, and delivering on Britain’s climate change ambitions. Join our panellists to find out how we can unleash the power of solar, including floating solar and virtual power plants (VPPs), as part of a green recovery.

“Any green stimulus package must unlock solar’s recovery potential and support our industry’s efforts to decarbonise and tackle climate change. The Solar Trade Association is calling on government to commit to a target of 40GW solar deployment by 2030 and to work with industry to deliver this target by enacting the policies outlined in their Priorities for a Renewable Recovery Package.”

This webinar is sponsored by Natural Power and runs from 14:00-15:30 on 16 July.

Looking back – and further information

Total attendance at All-Energy/Dcarbonise 2019 was 7,871 – including the First Minister of Scotland, the Scottish Energy Minister and over 600 other speakers over the two days.

All-Energy and the co-located Dcarbonise will be held Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 November 2020.

All-Energy’s major sponsors include ScottishPower (Host Sponsor); Shepherd and Wedderburn (Headline Sponsor) and Natural Power (Power Club sponsor) and is held in association with the Renewable Energy Association; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; Scottish Enterprise; UKRI and Innovate UK; Sustainable Glasgow; and the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), with Glasgow as its Host City, and the Society for Underwater Technology as Learned Society Patron. Dcarbonise is sponsored by the Scottish Government, Energy Saving Trust and Zero Waste Scotland.

The Smart Urban Mobility Solutions conference stream (part of Dcarbonise) is supported by Transport Scotland and organised in association with the Smart Environment Forum of ITS United Kingdom.

Further information and visitor registration is at www.all-energy.co.uk and www.dcarbonise.com