Synergy Events: A Profound Shift in our Global Energy System is Required to Stay Below Two Degrees

     (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/562067/Adnan_Z_Amin_Director_General_IRENA.jpg )

"Decarbonisation, rapid uptake of renewables, decentralisation and digitalisation are transforming the energy sector at a rapid pace, bringing new opportunities to the industry and empowering consumers," said IRENA Director-General, Mr. Adnan Z. Amin. "To adapt and compete, utilities need to innovate - evolving their business models from sales to service -and embrace a more distributed power system."

About Adnan Z. Amin, Director-General, IRENA: http://www.irena.org/DGBiography/DG.aspx

About IRENA: http://www.irena.org

Paddy Young, heads up the organization of European Utility Week, the annual event for the smart utility community. This event brings together over 500 utilities and key decision makers from the industry looking to lead a smooth transition towards a low carbon energy supply.

The European Utility Week Summit at RAI Amsterdam from 3-5 October 2017 is organized by Synergy Events.

In a recent conversation with Mr. Amin, an official Keynote speaker for European Utility Week (EUW) 2017, he revealed some great insights into achieving a low carbon future.

When asked how possible is a low carbon future and where we would need to invest in order to achieve it, Mr. Amin answered:

"We believe a low carbon future to be entirely possible and achievable. Moreover, we believe it to be desirable - not only from an environmental perspective but from an economic one. Critically, renewable energy is gaining real momentum around the world driven by falling costs, technological innovations and an increasingly attractive business case. Global average solar PV costs have the potential to fall by a further 60% and offshore and onshore wind by 35% and 25% till 2025. It is those continued cost declines that are fuelling rapid development. 2016 alone saw record growth in installed renewable capacity of 161 gigawatts. In the power sector, investment needs to go beyond generation technologies, into infrastructure that allows for large-scale integration of renewables in power systems such as demand side management, smart grids, storage and digitalisation. The power sector can also enable decarbonisation of end-use sectors, such as the transport and industrial sectors. Electric vehicles demonstrate how creating synergies between renewable power and transportation can accelerate transformation. These developments represent a profound shift in our global energy system and a positive step towards the low carbon economy required to stay below two degrees."

When asked by Paddy Young about what it would take to continue to this trajectory and if it was feasible to stay below two degrees and how the required investments could be mobilised, Mr. Amin said:

"To stay below two degrees, we need to reduce global energy related carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050 and completely phase it out by 2060. The good news is we believe that to be achievable, and to be net positive economically. Our work on decarbonization has shown that accelerating renewable energy deployment hand-in-hand with improved energy efficiency rates can take us there, and at the same time it would save us trillions annually - 2 to 6 times higher than the costs - thanks to avoided expenditures caused by climate change and air pollution. To get there we must see a seven-fold increase in annual deployment of renewables. Most additional effort should be focused on end use sector transformation, while power sector is progressing well. This energy transition will - for the most part - be fuelled by private sector investment, and a continued focus on innovating across the energy value chain, not just in terms of generation technology. We need innovative business models, a new approach to operations and new policy and financial instruments. In particular, mobilising the capital necessary to be successful will be about ensuring governments make investing in renewables attractive. This can be done in a number of ways, such as through project support grants; the allocation of resources to local financial institutions; development of structured financial mechanisms specific to renewables; increased use of targeted risk mitigation instruments and the standardisation of contracts and project documentation processes."

Asked about IRENA's view of the role of utilities in an increasingly decentralized energy environment, Mr Amin said:

"Energy transformation implications for utilities are myriad," said Mr. Amin. "The key question however, is how do utilities successfully embrace transformation driven by renewables based power system, an increasingly distributed model and the need to digitise. Utilities are very well positioned to thrive in this new context but they need to embrace change and act quickly to evolve from sales driven businesses to service-led ones."

Over the last four years, utilities are increasingly opening up to new kinds of partnerships in order to remain relevant in a sector that is growing in complexity. According to Mr. Young: "Utilities need partners that will encourage them to look beyond conventional constraint. There is no longer space in the energy sector for a linear approach and thus utilities should be partnering with companies, as well as research and educational institutions to create new solutions for the challenges and opportunities ahead. Now is the time to replace old processes with new ones which will take the utility business further and help it meet environmental goals."

"European Utility Week is a key platform that offers the industry an opportunity to discuss this fast-moving sector, and allows players to work together as they pursue new purpose and opportunities. I look forward to discussing this more with the European energy community in Amsterdam." concluded Mr. Amin.

About Synergy Events 

Synergy Events is part of Clarion Events and the market leader in developing and organising high quality international conferences and exhibitions for, and in co-operation with, the electricity, gas and water sectors. The management team has over four decades of experience in delivering high value events in the European and Australasian markets. The multi-lingual, expert team works closely with regional advisory boards made up of leading utility experts to deliver cutting-edge content in the areas of Grid Optimisation, Renewables, Energy Storage, Smart Metering, Smart Cities, Smart Homes, Energy Services & Efficiency, Energy Trading, Intelligent Buildings, Data Management, Analytics and IoT, Cyber Security, Smart Gas and Smart Water.

About European Utility Week 

European Utility Week is the premier landmark event in Europe for the entire smart utility sector, accumulating over 12,000 international smart energy stakeholders and 600 exhibitors.

It is a dynamic and energizing 3-day business, innovation and information platform in the form of a conference-led exhibition. The event facilitates greater networking and content sharing opportunities across the entire energy spectrum from generation to end use. The programme is developed to serve every level of the utility value chain in the form of a strategic and policy forming environment during the exclusive Summit and the more practical case studies presented during the Hub Sessions , free to attend for all visitors.

3-5 October 2017, RAI Amsterdam, will see European Utility Week co-locating with industry events including: 

• EMART Energy is the no. 1 networking platform for European energy traders and in 2017 will co-locate with European Utility Week, allowing its attendees to get in touch with a broader scope of solutions and experiences in the energy sector.
• Intelligent Buildings Europe focuses on the importance of buildings in our everyday life, and facilitates the business and networking opportunity between Utilities, ESCOs, Energy Service Providers, Financiers, Governments, Cities and Municipalities, all with the common goal of meeting climate change and policy commitments by improving energy efficiency.
• Energy Revolution Europe focuses on the most recent developments in renewables integration and energy storage in order to fully integrate systems and benefit from a smarter grid.
• Initiate! focuses on working with the utility industry in their effort to embrace the need for adopting new technologies, acquiring new talents and forming new partnerships to create positive change. It is the perfect platform to provide startups and young talent the opportunity to share their ideas and innovations with the more established professionals in the industry in an effort to collectively empower the industry.

For more information about the co-located events: http://www.european-utility-week.com/co-located-events

Media Contact:

Natasha Jennings, Brand & Marketing Manager, Synergy-Events
Email: [email protected]
T: +31-(0)-346290813

For more information visit: www.european-utility-week.com
European Utility Week
3-5 October 2017
Rai Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.european-utility-week.com/where-when

SOURCE Synergy Events