AN EVOLVING LANDSCAPE

ALL ENERGY AUSTRALIA 2017

As Australia’s energy landscape continues to evolve, the significance of the All-energy Australia conference continues to grow. Running from 11-12 October, this year’s conference will feature two days of exclusive presentations, workshops, and demonstrations that will put a spotlight on clean energy technologies’ increasing importance in the national energy mix.

IT’S been 12 months since South Australia’s State-wide blackout, which put renewable energy at the forefront of national energy discourse.

In this time, the country has been in a continuous state of ‘damage control’, commissioning a series of reports investigating the causes of the outage, and how decision makers can ensure more reliable, and affordable power for the nation moving forward.

Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel’s investigation into the nation’s energy industry and proposed Clean Energy Target announced earlier this year is a step change towards embracing clean energy technologies into the future energy mix.

While still yet to be ratified by the Federal Government, the technology neutral policy provides an incentive for new low emissions forms of energy generation to enter the market from clean coal, to renewables such as wind, solar and hydro.

Against this policy debate backdrop, leaders from the industry will be gathering in Melbourne this October at one of the world’s most significant platforms for the clean and renewable energy industry to discuss Australia’s evolving energy landscape, its future and new market realities for the energy system.

Held in partnership with the Clean Energy Council and co-located with Waste Expo, the six-stream free-to-attend All-energy Australia conference will showcase more than 160 world-class speakers, and almost 200 domestic and international exhibiting companies.

Ahead of the conference, exhibition director Robby Clark said All-energy Australia had earned a reputation as a “must-see” event, with attendance figures and participant numbers continuing to rise each year — much like the number of renewable energy projects sprouting up across the country.

“From electric vehicles to smart grid power systems, the conference program is designed each year to help visitors keep abreast of new and emerging sector trends,” Mr Clark said.

“In 2015, attendance grew by 10 per cent, and in 2016 by eight per cent.

“Our pre-registration of attendance alone for this year’s event is currently tracking at 30 per cent more than it was at this time last year, it all bodes well for this year’s event.”

To put into perspective, last year the conference attracted almost 5000 industry professionals across the two days.

Mr Clark said the 2017 conference has adapted to reflect the rapid evolution of the energy industry, featuring respected representatives from companies such as Tesla Energy, KPMG and AGL, who will share exclusive insights and projections.

Delegates can look forward to a number of plenary sessions, with key note presentations from the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Jo Witters and Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s Ian Learmonth.

This year, for the first time, the conference will also host Green Build and Low Carbon Economy conference sessions, as well as electric vehicles and sustainable transport sessions with Electric Vehicle Council chair Behyad Jafari, and AGL’S electric vehicles manager Kristian Handberg exploring policy and government support for electric vehicles, and infrastructure needs and new standards required to drive on Australia roads.

In addition, there will be breakout rooms with talks on future energy storage trends; the latest advancements and commercial opportunities in the PV sector; bioenergy; making the smart grid a success; government initiatives driving investment and expansion of renewables; residential energy storage; future potential of hydrogen; corporate PPAS and peer to peer energy trading; lithium ion and vanadium flow batteries and more.

Organisers have also scheduled a number of networking opportunities across the two days, helping delegates meet like-minded professionals from a range of visiting sectors.

This includes the Clean Energy Council’s Solar Design and Installation Awards Night, scheduled for Wednesday 11 October.

“Attendance to All-energy Australia is very diverse,” Mr Clark said.

“We attract installers, engineers, building and construction, developers, investors, consultants, government departments, councils, SME, utilities and of course many suppliers to this industry; the list is very long.”

Mr Clark said the team were looking forward to welcoming visitors to this year’s event, and beginning preparations soon after for 2018.

“Our planning never stops for All-energy Australia and feedback is constant from all stakeholders, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and delegates,” he said.

“The free-to-attend model works very well for us and feedback from all stakeholders is how it should stay, and that is our intention.”