Arno's EnergyIdeas (18)

About the 10th World Renewable Energy Congress and Exhibition –
WREC X 19-25th July, 2008, Glasgow, Scotland; UK

WREC is a truly international meeting, organized by the World Renewable Energy Network, and held every two years. A major event in the calendar for all those who are involved and research in the supply, distribution, consumption and development of energy sources which are benign, sustainable, accessible and economically viable. The congress provides a unique opportunity to learn of the latest developments in this rapidly changing and expanding world.

Chair"Lady" of Fuel Cells Session I, Jazaer Dawody, PhD, Volvo Technology Corporation, Exhaust aftertreatment & Fuel reforming, Göteborg, Sweden, is being updated by Arno A. Evers about the possibilities to attend the Group Exhibit Hydrogen and Fuel Cells at the HANNOVER FAIR 2009. Photo: Arno A. Evers FAIR-PR, Starnberg

This year, at the tenth anniversary, there were over 600 experts for renewable energies to Glasgow. The conference was held 2006 in Florence. Again, "Hydrogen and fuel cells" was present as a theme. The extensive program booklet with 62 pages, featuring over 400 international speakers had to be well studied to find the two pages where the 24 speakers to our "topic" were announced.

What else was there to be observed? There were over 100 "invited speakers," daily "Plenary Sessions", topics such as: "Policy Issues", "Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Solar Materials" (!!!) "Biomass", "Marine and Ocean Energy Technology "," Solar Thermal Applications "," Wind Energy Applications "," Photovoltaic Technology "," Solar Radiation and Related Topics" and "Low Energy Architecture". In addition, there were several workshops, on the themes like: "Europe" or "Engaging Women in Energy Enterprises".

The exhibition with 28 exhibitors from two countries had the "usual suspects" on display. Much institutions and institutes, little industry. A Glasgow company would have with his business idea in Germany not much luck and even less Turnover: Windsave Ltd. www.windsave.com offers its: "WS 1200 Plug ´n` Save System" a small home wind power plant, including control unit with software and installation for 1,898.00 British Pounds, including VAT, which is currently around 2,410.00 Euro. For that, you get a personal power plant, weighting 25 kg, and a swept diameter of 1.75m, which can deliver up to 1.25 kW of electricity to the "Ring" electricity network of your own (British) House. Electricity from the grid will only be purchased, if the “own”, by your wind power generated electricity, is not sufficient at a given time.

A good idea, however, to my information, "illegal" to sell in Germany. In our country, the Renewable Energy Law, (first introduced as electricity supply Act in 1991), since 1 April 2000 requires that 100 percent of your "own", with the assistance of renewable energy generated electricity, has to be fed into "the grid". After that, the user has to buy 100 percent “off the grid” again. This create dependencies, which are physical not really necessary. Especially, when you consider, all electricity used is still several times converted from originally regenerative produced, direct current into alternating current and vice versa. Nevertheless, this law-like model from Germany is eagerly exported to other countries such as Spain. Who could be interested in this procedure? At this time, Great Britain is happy enough, not yet to have such a comparable law: "Wind Power to the people!"

This WREC offered, all in all, a round, an interesting picture, which was worth to join. The WREC XI (World Renewable Energy Congress and Exhibition XI) will take place in May 2010 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Before that, from May 19 to 22 in 2009, will be held the "World Renewable Energy Congress 2009 - Asia" in Bangkok, Thailand, at the BITEC Exhibition Centre there.

Organizer Professor Ali Sayigh BSC DIC PhD FIEE CEng from Brighton, United Kingdom, told me at the end of this year's event: "We have to be careful for May 2010 in Abu Dhabi to get enough good international hydrogen and fuel cells speakers!" To achieve this, I would like to help him. If you are interested, to attend in Abu Dhabi in 2010 as a speaker, please let me know at: arno@hydrogenambassadors.com

Links to the News:
http://www.wrenuk.co.uk/wrecx.html
http://www.windsave.com/
https://www.hydrogenambassadors.com/meet-aae/wrec2008/index.php

Date: 29.07.2008