All-Energy, the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference has four essential ‘pillars’ – renewable power, low carbon heat, energy efficiency and low carbon transport (the latter covered largely by co-located Smart Urban Mobility Solutions with its two-day conference and exhibits including the connected and autonomous Westfield POD, Shell UrbanConcept vehicle and other low carbon vehicles).
Renewable energy plays a vital part in the annual event, being held next week at Glasgow’s SEC on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 May, with every source of renewable generation represented in the 300+ exhibitor exhibition and 450+-speaker conference; however, low carbon heat and energy efficiency continue to expand in both.
“Year-on-year we see an increase of interest from exhibitors, speakers and visitors in both low carbon heat and energy efficiency,” explains Event Director, Jonathan Heastie of Reed Exhibitions who own and organise the event. “Both have their own zones within the exhibition, but not all exhibitors opt to be in them, which is why we have our sector-specific trails around the show to help visitors easily locate what they are looking for (and exhibitors to see people truly interested in their exhibits). Currently there are 59 companies on the energy efficiency trail and 36 on the low carbon heat one. Checking them out online makes interesting reading, and enables visitors to start planning their route around the show.
“So too does poring over the conference programme – our conference, as with all elements of All-Energy, is free to attend; just register at www.all-energy.co.uk. Energy efficiency has its own conference session within the Sustainable and Smart Cities track – 90-minutes on 2 May, followed by five hours of back-to-back presentations in the Quick Fire Energy Efficiency Seminar Theatre. Low carbon heat has four 90-minute sessions in the main conference – geothermal on 2 May and then policy, heat networks and ‘there’s more to low carbon heating than heat networks’ on 3 May.
“Of course it also makes an appearance in the ‘Hydrogen Hub’ and the ‘Hydrogen and Fuel Cell’ main conference session. Then there are sessions such as the three energy systems ones; the decarbonising of industry, disruptive technology, the farming session and community and local energy sessions (and Quick Fire programme) that all have energy efficiency/heat elements.”
Diving deeper into low carbon heating
There will be 27 speakers and four chairmen taking part in the low carbon heat track at All-Energy, which starts by looking at geothermal on Day 1. The scene is set by the Scottish Government’s Geothermal Programme Manager. The next speaker from the British Geological Survey will be talking about the Glasgow Geothermal Energy Research Field Site; minewater geothermal heating and cooling then comes under the conference spotlight, before attention turns to The Halo, Kilmarnock, Scotland’s first deep geothermal low carbon district heat network; and then it is back to minewater in a packed 90-minute session.
The remaining three sessions all take place on 3 May, starting, not surprisingly, with Policy; and considering low carbon heat delivery options; Scottish heat policy; hydrogen as an option for low carbon heat; the RHI – both looking back to the National Audit Office report and forward to new RHI policy. As with all sessions there is plenty of time for discussion at the end of the session.
This might not be true of the next session on heat networks, for there are 11 speakers taking part, five of them in an “innovation cat walk” staged by the Danish Board of District Heating where each delivers a ‘speed pitch’. From ‘how to deliver a Heat Networks Code of Practice compliant project’ through to improving standards, innovations in district heating, models to deliver and finance a pipeline of heat networks, and infrastructure innovations to reduce capital cost it certainly covers the field.
The final session looks beyond heat networks to the decarbonisation of gas, the Gorbals Heat Pump Project; extracting heat from waste water; and making use of advanced smart metering.
Installers of heat pumps have special CPD sessions too
Heat pump installers will be interested to know that there are two CPD accreditation sessions they can attend on Thursday 3 May. The first is ‘Technical best practice for installing and commissioning a heat pump system’; and the second is ‘Getting heat pump contracts right: a best practice guide’ (which is also suitable for those installing other renewable energy systems such as PV, biomass, solar thermal, etc). Again they are free of charge to attend.
Another CPD session organised by Nexans invites audience members to ‘Discover the hidden world of power distribution cables: medium voltage cables for installers’
Energy efficiency in focus
The energy efficiency session on Day 1 under the Sustainable and Smart Cities banner covers policy, the recently introduced MEES energy efficiency standards; interesting case histories; and at supply chain and skills issues within Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme.
14:00-15:30 – 2 May
Chair: Professor Karen Turner, Director of the Centre for Energy Policy, University of Strathclyde
- Scottish Government Energy efficiency policy – Lynn Forsyth, Head of SEEP Delivery Team and Andrew Robinson, Head of HEEPS Area Based Scheme, The Scottish Government
- One month on from MEES… what have we learnt? – Stephen Preece, Business Development Director, arbnco
- Setting and delivering operational energy and carbon objectives for new builds – Stephen Vere, Senior Associate Director, Scottish Futures Trust
- Dundee City Council – Getting our own house in order – Andy Marnie, Energy Officer, Dundee City Council
- Update on the Scottish Government’s SEEP supply chain and skills working group – Ian Cuthbert, Programme Manager, Energy Saving Trust
- Q&A and panel discussion
It is neatly sandwiched between two city-related sessions. The first ‘Are we there yet? Green infrastructure and New World thinking’ will be exploring models developed in the USA to see what can be done to speed up the development of cleaner, warmer and more energy efficient cities for the people who live there.
The final session of the day ‘Challenges, opportunities and solutions’ involves smart cities across Scotland; the smart meter rollout across the UK; smart and sustainable cities in the developing world; and the SURECITY Platform: Sustainable and Resource Efficient Cities – with again plenty of time at the end of the session for discussion.
The next day sees 17 speakers on a variety of aspects of energy efficiency/energy management/ retrofit/ and low carbon heat taking part in back-to-back presentations in the Quick Fire Energy Efficiency Seminar Theatre on the exhibition show floor between 10:30 and 15:45.
Strong support
Shepherd and Wedderburn is All-Energy’s headline sponsor. Other sponsors include the Crown Estate Scotland, Element Power, Erova Energy, Innovate UK, Invest in Fife, ORE Catapult, ScottishPower Renewables and WPO. All-Energy is supported by a large number of trade associations, government departments, professional bodies and learned societies, and is held in association with the Renewable Energy Association; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; Scottish Enterprise; 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.
Full information on both events is at www.all-energy.co.uk and www.smarturbanmobilitysolutions.com
ENDS
CAPTION: Crowded aisles at All-Energy 2017
Notes to Editors:
Editors: Press registration is at https://all-energy18-press.reg.buzz/
All-Energy, the history: All-Energy, the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy and clean growth exhibition and conference has been held annually since 2001; the first SUMS was held in 2017. Conference presentations from 2017 are available to download free of charge on the All-Energy and SUMS websites.
Editors – if you would like your publication to be an All-Energy 2018/SUMS 2018 media partner: please contact Charlotte Napier at charlotte.napier@reedexpo.co.uk or on +44 (0)20 8910 7092
Further press information is available from: Judith Patten @ JPPR – judithpatten@JPPR.uk.com Tailor-made articles can be written to your required content/word count and deadline, as can fulsome show previews featuring exhibits and conference topics of particular relevance to your readership