Conferences and what next

The end of a busy week in the renewables conference scence, NOW Ireland on Monday, Eirgrid on Tuesday, ESRI on Thursday my head is fried with the possibility of it all. What we learned folk is that the people whotwelve months ago could not spell the word export have finally woken up to the fact that we can make money from this. What they have not figured out yet is how to inject the sense of urgency to make it happen.

The other thing which has changed is that no one in the policy or utility areas seems to believe that Ireland will be an independent energy market for much longer. There will be at least a regional market encompassing Ireland and the UK and more likely an EU market. This is one of the few and probably the only significant area of commercial activity where there still exist barriers to trade between nations. This is gonna change.

Strong recommendation to read the coverage of Ian Marchant's remarks from the NOW conference in today's Sunday Times.

Offshore Wind Conference Line Up

NOW Ireland - Ireland's offshore wind industry group announced the line up for their conference today. I confess to a vested interest here, working closely with this group. Great line up though, including the EU Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, Minister Eamon Ryan Ian Marchant of SSE and Padraig McManus of ESB.

Christian Kjaer of EWEA should also bring a really good EU perspective to the event. On on the 12th of October in Dublin's Westin Hotel. Definitely one to attend.