When All-Energy, the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference began its life in 2001, it looked solely at generation from on- and offshore wind, wave and tidal. But then, a year on, an exhibitor helped to change the nature of the annual show.
“You’re not being fair to us,” he said. “Where is pyrolysis, where is energy efficiency, where is heat…….” then came the most important words of all “Let the market decide how best to use you.” And that is what has happened ever since.
The 17th All-Energy will be staged at the Scottish Events Campus (previously SECC) on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 May and naturally encompass every form of renewable energy generation – on- and offshore wind; tidal (stream, lagoons and barrages); bioenergy (biomass, biogas, and biofuel); geothermal; hydropower; and solar.
Thanks to ‘letting the market decide’, All-Energy also looks within the conference and exhibition at heat (including district heating, combined heat and power, ground source heat pumps, heat from biomass including wood pellets); energy efficiency and management – including retrofit; local energy – including shared ownership; energy storage – viewed by many as ‘the holy grail’; energy from waste; use of hydrogen; energy systems; the grid; smart and sustainable cities; and finance and funding that lies at the heart of every development or project.
This year too, having run sustainable transport conference sessions for several years, a new co-located event has been created by All-Energy’s organisers, Reed Exhibitions – Smart Urban Mobility Solutions (SUMS 2017) which looks at the smart (as well as at the sustainable) aspects of transport.
Increasingly energy managers are flocking to All-Energy for its rich choice of both conference sessions and exhibits – and the event, including its Giant Networking Evening on the first evening, is free to attend for all with a business/professional interest in the topics that come under the conference spotlight and are on show in the exhibition.
The exhibition features 15 sector specific trails to help visitors easily track down the exhibits of most interest to them. Already exhibitors are picking the trails they want to appear on (which each have their own ‘map’ and special logos on the stands; as well as featuring on the show’s App). ‘Energy Management’ readers can already start using the online-trails to determine who they want to visit, with Bioenergy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, Grid, Heat and Smart and Sustainable cities being perhaps the most applicable. Of those, Energy Efficiency currently ‘tops the polls’ with the most exhibitors signed up.
Some 7,000 attended All-Energy 2016 with its 400+ exhibiting companies, and over 400 speakers who take part in the conference and in “Quick Fire” presentation theatres on the exhibition show floor: “There’s a tremendous buzz at this busy show,” explains Judith Patten MBE, the show’s co-creator and now project director of the conference. “Business is done and new contacts made.”
Looking at the main conference programme
Thanks to the publication of two strategies by The Scottish Government, main conference sessions including Heat, Energy Efficiency, and Local Energy will feature government input from senior officials eager in particular to discuss the draft Energy Strategy – the consultation period closes at the end of May, making All-Energy’s timing ideal for maximum feedback. This draft Energy Strategy was launched days after the government published its Climate Change Strategy, so there is much to be discussed and commented upon.
The full conference programme will be online during March at www.all-energy.co.uk. Each year there is a high level of interest from home and overseas in response to the Call for Papers, and then dedicated ‘sector champions’ help the organisers, Reed Exhibitions, determine the make-up of each and every session with an overall total of 400+ speakers and panellists. Speakers, like visitors to the show, come from across the UK, Europe and from further afield including the USA, Australia and Taiwan.
Energy efficiency/management features both in the main conference (10 May) when policy and delivery will come under the conference spotlight; and in the day-long Energy Efficiency Quick Fire Seminar Theatre on the exhibition showfloor, which traditionally features case histories on products and ‘energy efficiency success stories from organisations of varying sizes and complexity..
Energy Storage in the main conference features over 20 speakers in three sessions – ‘Making energy storage happen’; ‘Growing the energy storage market’; ‘New developments in energy storage’; Heat in all its guises merits just as many speakers in a three-session stream.
“We aim to ensure that our speakers can expect packed rooms; and our visitors can expect to take away knowledge thanks to the conference sessions; information on a wide range of products and services from their time in the exhibition; and a pocket full of business cards when they attend the Giant Networking Evening,” says Judith Patten
Further information on all aspects of All-Energy and SUMS 2017, including free online registration is at www.all-energy.co.uk and www.smarturbanmobilitysolutions.com
