A bright energy future

Next week, Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) will host its inaugural Energy Futures Conference and Exhibition at P&J Live on November 15, welcoming a broad range of energy stakeholders for discussion and debate on the role of the north of Scotland in our energy future.

I have spent much of my first year at AREG meeting organisations either active in, or with ambitions of winning business in, the energy transition and renewables sector, as Scotland navigates at pace towards its 2045 net-zero ambition.

We have seen a steady rise in AREG membership over this period and we’re now sitting at over 260 organisations. We’ve seen significant interest and growth in board membership, which reflects increased interest in our work across industry and academia.

Formed nearly 20 years ago and best known for championing the delivery of the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, AREG was the first north-east energy transition organisation.

The Energy Futures event is a milestone for AREG, bringing together many of the active organisations who are driving the growth in renewables.

As a child of the 1970s and ’80s, I was aware of the consumer revolution happening with technology and the microcomputer, which drove changes in the way we stored information, how we communicated, and how we spent our leisure time listening to tapes then CDs and watching the evolution of TV. During this time, the choices and technologies that became available were at a scale never experienced before.

In a similar way to the technology transformations we saw then, the energy transition aims to transform how we power the planet, moving the sector towards zerocarbon by the second half of the century.

Technology will once again be an enabler for these changes, helping us to achieve net-zero at a primary, community and household level.

In 1970, Aberdeen was on the cusp of a transformation from shipbuilding, papermaking and fishing to a rapid economic expansion due to the discovery of North Sea oil and gas.

Over 50 years later, the oil and gas industry can provide the skills and investment needed to help deliver the energy transition and development of new technologies. This includes a new generation of world-class offshore wind farms in Scottish waters, developments in hydrogen and support for the wider transition.

Technological and societal change at this scale will require behavioural change at every level as we seek to tackle the climate emergency. Gaining support from the public as our lifestyles transform in terms of how we power our homes, travel and work will be key to maintaining momentum for the transition.

AREG has seen many changes in the last 20 years, and we can only begin to imagine what the next decade will bring.

We will continue to be a catalyst for change, a voice for our growing membership, a media commentator and facilitator for organisations looking to grasp the opportunities of diverse supply chains.

To register for the free AREG Energy Futures Conference and Exhibition, visit aberdeenrenewables.com

PIONEERING PROJECT: AREG championed the delivery of the Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm.