POWER-GEN Europe and Renewable Energy World Europe 2015 closed on Thursday 11th June 2015 with a renewed sense of optimism about Europe’s transitioning energy sector. In what has been viewed as a difficult time for the energy sector, almost 10,000 attendees came together at the show to trade intelligence, learn new ideas and celebrate successes within European energy. This included nearly 1,000 delegates from 400 exhibitors, representing over 100 countries. The flow of thoughts, enthusiasm and technology were a constant throughout the event, and attendees left with many promising ideas, not least from the 203 diverse and inspirational speakers at the conference.
This year’s event opened with the highly anticipated Joint Keynote Session from Maria van der Hoeven, executive director, International Energy Agency; Ineke Dezentjé Hamming-Bluemink, president of FME, the Dutch Employers’ Association; Marie Donnelly, director, DG Energy; and Dr Wolfgang Konrad, chief executive, Siemens Distributed Generation.
Ms van der Hoeven presented the need for an all-encompassing energy approach in order to combat climate change, suggesting today’s energy structure itself needed to be overhauled. Ms. Hamming-Bluemink echoed this call for change, suggesting that business plans should be reviewed every month in the fast moving European energy market. Ms. Donnelly agreed that Europe was at risk of being, in its current form, “28 separate boxes in the EU”. Furthermore, Dr. Konrad discussed the need for an updated and more flexible grid that could deal with renewables, distributed power to better match demand with availability.
The Gala Dinner was another excellent event for networking and celebrating the achievements of the European power industry, as five projects were recognised for their ingenuity and services to clean energy generation. The prestigious Peabody clean coal achievement for best emissions performance was awarded to Trianel Kohlekraftwerk GmBH & Co KG for their iconic site in Lünen, Germany.
On day two of the conference, the Joint Plenary Panel Discussion focused on the show’s theme of a transitioning European energy sector, and there was a heated discussion between the five panel members which the audience enjoyed and participated in. The panel discussed a change in the role of traditional power generation from commodity to insurance, in conjunction with the phasing out of traditional generation due to the growing use of renewable sources and their intermittency. Further discussion took place around the use of energy data being shared in order to promote smarter cities, and whether this data could be utilised to allow carbon capture and storage to become a viable option, not just a failed experiment.
The optimism and momentum carried over into the final day of the show, with the presentation of the best paper awards rounding off the day. The floor was busy up until the very end of the show, with many meetings and events taking place throughout the exhibition.
POWER-GEN Europe and Renewable Energy World Europe will be back next year, with 2016’s show to be held in Milan. Register your interest now for more details and to take advantage of early bird pricing.
