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Top 12 Reasons to attend Smart Grids & Cleanpower 2014 Cambridge

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Top 12 Reasons to Attend SGCP14

1. See and mingle with 40 top speakers
2. Influence the debate – audience reverses & open panels
3. Build your network – new and old partners & clients
4. Pleasant dinner roundtable in Cambridge with decision makers and influencers
5. Help innovators at smaller and large companies
6. Debate fracking rationally
7. Debate energy pricing & market structure
8. Debate the energy vs internet cultural challenges
9. Help increase grid resilience
10. Learn all about smart grids and energy
11. Get latest updates in markets
12. Challenge your assumptions
SGCP14 Logo
SGCP14 Logo

AGENDA – DAY 1 – EXECUTIVE BRIEFING MASTERCLASS DAY JUNE 3
10:15 – 11:00 Session 1: Introduction Smart Grids & Energy – led by Gavin Jones, Business Development Director, ElectraLink
10:15 Introduction to Day 1
10:20 Definitions
10:30 Basics
10:40 Trends and Drivers
10:50 Review & discussion

Coffee break

11:15 – 13:00 Session 2: Technology led by Dr Andy Stanford Clark, CTO Smart Energy, IBM
11:15 Demand Side Management (DSM) – the key to the smart grid
11:30 Case studies
11:40 Smart Meters & AMI | Interoperability
12:00 Distributed generation – Alan South, Commercial Director, Solar Century
12:30 Renewables and storage, markets and intermittency – Graham Ford, Mansion Partners
Review

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch networking & meetings

14:00 – 16:00 Session 3 Markets – led by Mike Wilks, Director Smart Energy, Poyry
14:00 Social & Innovation Cartography in grids and energy
Key players – visions, strategies and what they are doing
Porter’s Market Characteristics & Forecasts
14:45 Demand Response Economics – Anneesha Patten, Poyry
15:00 Big Data, Data sharing & privacy – Gavin Jones, Business Development Director ElectraLink
15:20 Monetisation of energy management systems – Pilgrim Beart, Founder AlertMe & 1248.io
15:40 The Industrial Internet – Dr Amyas Philips
Review

16:05 Tea break

16:30 – 17:30 Session 4 Innovation – led by Rob McNamara, Founder, Smart Grids GB
The status quo & change challenges
The value & funding of innovation – Steve Dawson, VP Consulting, Sentec
17:10 Discussion
Summary of Day

19:00 – 21:15 Roundtable dinner at King’s College, Cambridge

AGENDA – DAY 2 – SMART GRIDS 4 JUNE
Session 1 Smart Grids & Collected Intelligence
10:00 Dr Justin Hayward, Director, Cambridge Investment Research, Introduction
10:05 Gavin Jones, Business Development Director, ElectraLink, Chairman’s Opener
10:10 Rob McNamara, Founder, Smart Grids GB, The Value of a Smart Grid to Great Britain
10:20 Audience Collected intelligence, Comments & questions for day speakers and panellists from audience – one minute each
10:50 Stephen Cunningham, CEO, UK, Ireland & Nordic, Landis & Gyr, Keynote: Managing Energy Better – The landscape for smart grid
11:10 Panel with speakers and chair

Morning coffee & showcase of products and services

Session 2 Connected Intelligence: servers, networks, meters, fast data analytics & grids
Dr Sean Cochrane, Director Cyan Technology A connected energy network through metering and lighting
Dr Paul Wright, CCM National Physical Laboratory Smart grid measurement
John Di Stasio, CEO Sacramento Municipal Utility Department (SMUD) Jt Keynote: Smart grid intelligence and risk, Smart grid intelligence and risk
Martin Dunlea, Global Industries Lead, Utilities, Oracle, Jt Keynote: Fast Data, Actionable Data
Panel with Peter Drake, Managing Director, Intelligent Networks

Lunch networking & exhibition of products & services

Session 3 Smart Cities & Infrastructure: real systems solutions at scale | the industrial internet
Michael Clark, Programme Director – Low Carbon London UK Power Networks, A Smart Grid for London
Rich Hampshire, Principal Consultant CGI, End-to-end smart grid & consumer engagement
Philip Burr, Director of Product Marketing Arkessa, Case study: an M2M platforms for IoT Solutions
Chris Wright, CTO, Moixa Technology, Smart Direct Current
Dr Andy Stanford Clark, CTO Smart Energy, IBM, Keynote: Smarter planet works
Panel with Tony Rooke, Sustainable Strategy Director; Smart Cities & Innovation, Infosys

Coffee networking & expo of products & services

Session 4 Plenary Policy debate grids and energy: innovators | funding | regulation & reforms
Dora Guzeleva, Head of Network Policy Ofgem, How regulation can be a win-win for stakeholders
Ian Ellerington, Head of Innovation, DECC, The key role of innovators in changing the energy industry
Steve Dawson, VP / Dr Mark England, EVP Smart Grid, Sentec, Routes to market for energy innovators
Pilgrim Beart, Founder, AlertMe, Keynote: UK energy management innovation in global markets
Panel with Chairman – followed by Chairmen’s summaries

Drinks networking

AGENDA – DAY 2 – CLEANPOWER CONFERENCE 4 JUNESession 1 The Energy Trilemma: Resilience | Affordability | Targets & transition technologies
10:00 Mike McCreary, Director, Cambridge Investment Research, Introduction
10:05 Jeremy Nicholson, Senior Advisor, EEF, Energy Intensive Users Group, Chairman’s Opener
10:10 Peter Sharratt, Director – Sustainability Services, SBP (spin out Deloitte), Guiding future investments for property, infrastructure & sustainability needs
10:20 Audience Collected intelligence, Comments & questions for day speakers and panellists from audience – one minute each
10:50 Dr Bernard J Bulkin, NED, Ludgate Investments (former Chief Scientist BP) & Cambridge Univ., Keynote: The Energy Trilemma
11:10 Panel with speakers and chair

Morning coffee & showcase of products and services

Session 2 Fracking in Focus
Professor Andy Woods, Lead Scientist, CU BPI, Science & the Risks and rewards of fracturing for shale gas
Marieke Beckmann, Research Lead National Physical Laboratory, CCM, Emissions measurement in fracking
Dr Tony Smith, Technical Director SLR Consulting Separating Myth from reality – Fracking and the social licence
Joel Price, COO San Leon Energy, Experiences of shale development in the EU
Michael Bradshaw – Professor of Global Energy Warwick University Keynote: The impact of the US shale gas revolution on UK gas security
Panel with moderator Professor Woods CU BP Institute

Lunch networking & exhibition of products & services

Session 3 Energy markets: competition & pricing
Mike Wilks, Director Smart Energy Poyry, Energy market structure: could do better?
Hen Cooke & Emilia Melville Buro Happold, TSB-funded case study: domestic demand response & smart grids
Doug Stewart, CEO Green Energy UK, The role of alternative suppliers of energy
Ashleye Gunn, Programme Director Which? , Consumer policy and market solutions
Neil Pennington, Programme Director: Smart, rwe nPower, Keynote: Vertical integration, other structures and the real effects on energy supply prices
Panel with chairman

Coffee networking & expo of products & services

Session 4 Plenary Policy debate grids and energy: innovators | funding | regulation & reforms
Dora Guzeleva, Head of Network Policy Ofgem, How regulation can be a win-win for stakeholders
Ian Ellerington, Head of Innovation, DECC, The key role of innovators in changing the energy industry
Steve Dawson, VP / Dr Mark England, EVP Smart Grid, Sentec, Routes to market for energy innovators
Pilgrim Beart, Founder, AlertMe, Keynote: UK energy management innovation in global markets
Panel with Chairman – followed by Chairmen’s summaries

Drinks networking

VENUES
Murray Edwards College, Buckingham House Conference Centre, Cambridge, England, CB3 0DR – state-of-art tiered auditorium, excellent, light networking & exhibition spaces, meeting areas, great food, plentiful coffee. CIR invites you to become one of the best business delegates in the world, nurturing your business development and personal and corporate success by leaning into the value network & having fun at the same time. And the Roundtable Dinner is at King’s College, Cambridge. It doesn’t get better than that!

Smart Homes: a hotbed for IoT?

SHCP13 | Bookings

Theme: Connected intelligence in 4 sizzlng sessions

1. Presence & the connected building; Services to the smart home; The comfortable, convenient home; Smart cities – smart citizens; Entrepreneur programmes; Access to innovation funds for SMEs;

2. Intelligent Water: monitoring, meters; sensors; controls; displays; integration.

3. Intelligent Heat & Energy; Heating smart communities; Storage & controls; Energy efficiency; Automation via devices;

4. IoT entrepreneurship;

Imagine you could be “present” in your home without having to be there, by influencing the many settings, appliances, deliveries, security remotely, and all with a minimum of fuss. It could be a matter of switching heating systems on and off from the airport. It might be changing the setting on a security system. The supply of your favourite food might not need to be updated because you are away for a week.

When you are there, the temperature in rooms will automatically adjust to the circumstances – without your intervention, unless you wish to make a change, for example, for visitors you believe may have different comfort zones. Your smart home automates intelligently for you.

A key aspect of this is service design: if, as the number of connected devices in the home increases, the complexity of managing the home goes up, then it won’t work for the householders. With the technology and automation needs to come simplicity in the service model.

So how can the internet of things be used to get our house to tell us (and our neighbours and the police) when we are being burgled, and switch on alarms and camera recordings that are sent to our smartphones via the web in real time?

How can our home automation systems minimise our bills as energy prices rise? Our energy use? Our footprint?

As regards heat and water technologies – how can new offerings help integrate into the smart home, smart community and smart city? And in the wider context, how can technology enable the “smart citizen” interacting at all the levels there?

And what programmes are out there for entrepreneurs to gain access to government matched funding for research or marketing of products and services in these sectors?

What can be done to reduce the allocation of funds to large utility players to the apparent exclusion of smaller companies who innovate strongly?

The 8th Smart Homes & Cleanpower Conference 2013 Expo (SHCP13 | Bookings) will take place at Buckingham House Conference Centre, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University CB3 0DF on 5 November 2013, and the forum will discuss the above questions in pleasant and relaxed modern conference surrounds, just half a mile from the beautiful mediaeval centre of the town.

The pricing is very modest at £100 for independent full-time entrepreneurs seeking investment & students; £195 for investors, government and academics (a £130 reduction) & £325 for full- and part-time executives.

Fast-track bookings can be made by calling 01223 303500 or hitting this mailto link and sending an email with name, affiliation, and telephone and the CIR SHCP13 Team will do the rest!

 

 

 

 

 

iWATER Conference Summary: water innovations & EfW

The iWATER 2012 conference objectives of looking at the trends in water innovation needs, how to achieve energy from waste, the technology direction for water and waste technologies and to look at the potential cross-over strategies between the water, waste and energy sectors.

These topics were introduced by Mike McCreary of CIR Strategy. Mike spoke of the looming energy crisis and the recent water issues and suggested that as with most things environmental, there is an inter-linkage and inter-dependency that must be addressed to avoid the solution of one issue precipitating a crisis in another. With a water demand curve in some areas of England already significantly exceeding supply and an increasing population density meaning that available water resources per person per year are on average less than that of some Mediterranean countries, solutions for a UK water industry that already uses nearly 3% of the national electricity generating capacity have to mindful of other utility requirements.
The proceedings opened with the Conference Chair, Dr Hans Jensen, CEO of UK Water Industry, outlining what he saw to be the direction for the industry, namely innovation leading to affordable least cost, sustainable solutions that would allow for environmental extremities due to climate change giving good catchment management and the delivery of clean potable water.
The opening address was given by the Right Honorable Lord Smith of Finsbury, the Chairman of the Environment Agency. Lord Smith outlined the current pressures on the industry brought about by the last 16 months being the driest for 150 years leading to temporary ‘use bans’ as a result of ground water levels becoming perilously low, immediately followed by the wettest 3 months for 100 years leading to major flooding, sometimes in the same place!

His view was that we had to have an industry capable of responding to rapid change and that we had to educate the public/society that water was not an infinitely available resource. Innovation in products and processes had to develop draught resistant crops and better methods of irrigation and water use. Indeed, during the draught, several major corporations had reduced their consumption by, for instance, introducing low water methods of washing crops that had lead to an 85% reduction in consumption, and rainwater harvesting.
Building design had to be relooked at; current techniques wasted water by, for instance, requiring pure water to be used for sanitation purposes rather than grey water. This had to be a priority for new build and he cited his own agency as a leader in new thinking with the new Environment Agency HQ reducing consumption by 85% when viewed on a like for like basis with their previous HQ.
He then turned to one of the major industry issues, leakage. A staggering 25% of purified water does not reach the end user. He saw this as an absolute priority for the industry; the leaks have to be fixed. Both Business and Domestic consumers had to be educated in better and wiser ways of using water with innovation being the only way for growth. Demand and use management would be only way to cater for the new housing stock in the South East and prevent further water stress. Water efficiency is key for the future.
Lord Smith closed by summarising the challenges:

• Pressure for innovation

• Disseminate of good practice

• Make it easy for the customers to do the right thing; the green deal must include water.

• Incentivise the water companies to sell less water with OFWAT pricing allowing for the companies to innovate more whilst delivering less.
The mechanisms of change were Regulatory, Government and Pricing.
This excellent opening address led to a lively question and answer session with questions and statements including:

• What is the impact of the lack of genuine competition?

• The need for alternative methods for abstraction.

• The need for alternative storage, catch it when it rains!

• Interconnection between water companies in adjoining regions leading to a Water National Grid whilst being mindful of the energy demands if this entails a pumped system.

• Desalination is seen as a position of last resort.

• Catchment management, we used to lead the world, the new Public Water Resource Framework is driving the need for catchment management.

• The Government do not give enough incentives for innovation unlike, for instance Singapore.

• Market incentives/regulatory frameworks and incentives are all very well but political volatility is a problem for long term water infrastructure project commitment.
Steve Kaye, Head of Innovation at Anglia Water followed Lord Smith by presenting an industry view of the issues and challenges saying that the water industry works in isolation and that there is a need to look at other industries for solution ideas. Whilst feeling that extreme weather does drive innovation there is a requirement for supplier engagement to drive forward the business process leading to a cultural change in the industry and its’ supply chain. Anglia have adopted a suppliers ‘dragons den’ to speed the innovation process with a view to improving current plant and not necessarily just building new assets, e.g. the use of elliptical pipes to reduce the depth of trenches. He felt that there is a resistance to the use of smart meters due to a lack of a clear business case understandable by the consumers. There has been a slow take up of waste combustion from by product bio gas due to legislative issues. Looking further at the inflow and out flow aspects there is a need for ‘Intelligent Sewers’ and ’Intelligent management’ of pipes in terms of both pressure and flow management.

There is a growing problem in the industry from the use of farm insecticides that are now finding their way into the reservoir system. He closed by agreeing with the final floor comment after Lord Smiths’ introduction that the 5 year regulatory window restricts long term growth.
The issues of waste water treatment was then picked up by Kieran Healey, the Synergies and Integration Manager for Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies stating that Waste Water Treatment plants waste energy and generate waste. The plants need to use the bio gas generated within the process to drive generators and improve electricity consumption. With 62% of energy being used in biological management, innovation is required in the field of bio refineries producing bio gas for energy and usable by-production of plastic materials. Veolia are looking to establish themselves as the benchmark for sustainable growth.
After another Q&A session and networking break, Professor Annie Brooking , CEO of Bactest demonstrated their latest portable contamination tester, ‘Speedy Breedy’. This is a field deployable fast test capability that can be used for all new and repair pipe-work projects that require a fast Yes/No answer as to whether contamination is present or not. If a ‘No’ answer, then supplies can be connected but if a ‘Yes’ answer the results of test samples sent off to laboratories for parallel examination can be used to determine what is present and what remedial action is required.
Ian Bernard, Technical Manager of British Water then spoke of the work done within his trade association and of the roller coaster demand cycle due to the 5 year plan changing. With the UK spending £10 billion a year on capes and the world wide industry around £500 billion, there is a large market that requires focus and direction. Ian outlined the use of the BWISE data base of emerging technologies to assist investment decisions.
Picking up the theme of investment decisions, Andy Slater Director of Sensus concentrated on the need for all stakeholders to act in tandem to fulfil a smart water vision. He introduced conference to the need to make smart actually be intelligent and utilise the data available from an independent survey that looked at the issues within the industry. With 20% of water lost through leakage and leakage being linked to pressure management we have to move to intelligent water networks. The research also highlighted the need for media management to assist in cultural and behavioural change of consumers and publicise the wastage caused by both the industry and the consumer. The morning Q&A session was moderated by Fiona Griffith of Isle Utilities. Immediately prior to the lunch break there were ‘rapid pitches’ from Fiona regarding her Technology Approval Group (TAG), a global innovation forum for water utilities and operators and Laurie Reynolds CEO of Aquamatix who develop and apply web services and standards to connect sensors, actuators and people by working with water and wastewater organisation to enable the realisation of Smart Water networks and related applications.

Charles Lee of Futureneering opened the afternoon session on Energy from Waste with a discussion on the need for a closed loop approach to land fill avoidance and the use of local by-products to generate energy. Clearly, mass burn incineration is an alternative to land fill but would breach emission limits giving an impetus to localised sources. He also highlighting that ‘free in the field’ was not necessarily ‘free in the generating plant’ if it were to be transported for any distance. He then summarised the various energy recovery from waste techniques currently available but issued the cautionary note that Waste materials become valuable commodities as soon as a use is found for them.

Doug Stewart CEO of Green Energy UK followed Charles. He ran through the rationale behind the establishment of Green Energy UK. The company sources power from green suppliers and seeks to engage with ethical consumers who are willing to adopt a specific tariff structure. Interestingly, many of his suppliers were not in business at the start of Green Energy but have commenced as the market for sustainably produced electricity has grown. Part of the company rationale is to offer shares to all customers to ensure their continuing commitment to innovation in the green energy field. Doug showcased a number of his suppliers and customers and closed with an overview of the regulatory incentives and closed with his view that we have to:
• Use less electricity, not more!

• Capture waste as a resource

• Liberate the energy

• Increase public awareness

• Make something useful out of what we throw away

Philip Gaffney CEO of L2S2 picked up on these themes as he put the case for data clarity and availability in making the investment decisions necessary for measurable and sustainable change in the energy/water/waste industries. L2S2 has developed a framework for data collection, management, reporting and device control that can operate over real world networks. The Metabase system has been developed recognising that:
• Change is a constant

• Sustainability demands high efficiency

• Rapidly adapted, accurate, current information needed to respond and plan

• Highly detailed, immediate data from and feedback to operations is essential for efficiency
He overviewed some interesting applications of the data base including an Anglian Water Wet Well photography system whereby data from cameras inserted into sewers and pipes can be analysed in real time in the central control room enabling timely corrective actions to be made. Data generated in a variety of applications can be displayed in customised KPI dashboard form to allow informed executive decision making.
Nick Boyle CEO of Lightsource Renewable Energy followed with a presentation on how a solar installation or Power Purchase Agreement with Lightsource can benefit heavy industry users and property owners by cutting electricity costs and providing better control on budget forecasting. He started with a cost curve showing how Solar energy costs of generation has fallen from a price 10 years ago of €3.8M per MW to a current price of €0.5M per MW as the cost of solar panels has been driven down. Lightsource look for unused land/reservoir/roof space and via their financing collaborators Octupus Investments, they pay for the installation and maintenance of the solar plant and can return to the land owner a 20% reduction in energy costs. He ran over a number of options including a floating solar system for use on reservoirs and other systems linked to waste recycling centres. Lightsource believe their approach can generate 10MW per 50/60 acres of land giving a discounted saving of £14.7M over 25 years.

 

The final session of the day was introduced and moderated by Rupert Kruger, Head of Innovation at Thames Water. In his opening remarks Rupert reminded the conference that water supply was the ultimate closed loop supply and demand system with, for instance, Thames Water delivering 2M tons of clean water to customers daily and collecting nearly the same amount as waste in the sewers.

An overview of investment trends in the VC market and what investors look for in investee companies was then given by Francis Wright of Turquoise (Low Carbon Investment Fund). He started from the point that there are fewer independent VC’s and an increasing number of Corporate VC’s leading to a change in the dynamics of the market. Francis gave an overview of what investors are now looking for and indicated that the market is now demanding the shortening of investment horizons from 5 – 7 years down to 3 – 5 years.

Generally investors are looking for:

• Experienced Management Team

• Scalable business model

• Low capital intensity

• Market leading product

• Fast route to market

• IP protection or other barriers to entry

• For projects:

• No technology risk

• Long term price and volume certainty on feedstock

• Creditworthy counterparties for feedstock and offtake
Moving on from supply and investment, Dr James O Jenkins from the University of Hertfordshire gave a presentation entitled ‘Water efficiency by stealth: time for a rethink on how we use water meters’. The basic premise of the talk was that there is a very low level of consumer understanding regarding water usage and the need for meters. Water meters are normally inaccessible, normally 0.5m underground and therefore not checked by the consumer. Add this to a commodity consumers do not consider price sensitive, means that a 10% price increase results in a 1% drop in consumption, i.e. price would have to double to achieve a modest 10% consumption reduction. There is a public perception that all price increases go to ‘fat cat’ companies aiming to get rich from what is seen as a basic need. In plain words, there is institutional distrust of the water companies. The reality is that we need smart water meters that are visible and easy to use aimed at enabling consumer control over the amount of water they use. Consumers do not purchase washing machines and dish washers based on water consumption, more on energy consumption. Other countries, e.g. Australia where there is already a high awareness of the need for water conservation, have subsidised the purchase of water efficient machines to aid the consumers.

He closed with the following based on survey results:

• Consumers need to be targeted with a diverse range of policies:

• consumers were very positive towards the fitting of free water saving devices (70%)

• the subsidisation of more water efficient household appliances (75%)

• the offering of a rebate on their water bill, if they were to reduce their water usage (70%)

• Make all water meters accessible

• Use water meters to educate

• Cost-neutral regulatory framework is not effective

• Bolder and stronger regulation needed

• Effective and engaging resource management approaches are going to cost more – ‘nudge’ your customers!

⇒ Change by stealth!

Following the theme of water efficiency, Sam Bose, CEO of AquaMW illustrated how Energy and Water sectors are interconnected since copious amount of energy is required to treat, move and distribute water while significant amount of water is required in the energy generation process and for cooling the steam generated. This is more pronounced in the industrial sector with industrial processes generating heat and requiring enormous energy, water to run them optimally.

The session discussed the energy – water nexus in industrial processes and highlighted possible solutions to improve efficiency. The AquaMW products ‘Smart Water’ and Smart Energy’ are retro-fittable wireless network systems using cloud computing techniques for delivering actionable intelligence.

He closed with the conclusions that to gain Industrial Resource Efficiency there are ‘3 takeaways’:

• Reducing resource (Energy, Water) demand through conservation programs

• Data Analytics to unlock insight for process efficiency and improve plant performance

• Resource, System and Process efficiency are all connected which can be delivered through Conservations Programs

Following a Q&A session moderated by Rupert Kruger, the conference chair, Dr Hans Jensen, summarised the day’s proceedings:

• The industry had to learn to live with a volatile weather pattern

• The industry needs to ‘fix the leaks’

• Intelligent data and resource collation systems need to be adopted

• Innovative ways of directing scarce resources need to be adopted

• New product innovations need to be adopted

• That the energy and water industry need to share best practice regarding the re-use of waste and metering techniques

• There needs to be a concerted effort to promote public understanding of the issues and to gain public trust

Summary by Mike McCreary, CIR Strategy & iWATER Conference Moderator

Please contact CIR on 01223 303500 for more information on our strategic consultancy in routes to market, segmentation & focus strategy, market research and commercial diligence.

 

SGCP 2012 Summary Slides – iHEAT/HVM on Horizon!

The above conference took place on 14 June 2012 at Cambridge University’s Murray Edwards College, there were over 100 delegates including many innovating SME energy efficiency grids and power companies. The day was a great success, with over 25 talks across two streams, and there was an intriguing final plenary panel led by Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, of the Guardian Newspaper, with Keynote: Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool speaking on the “boon or curse” of shale gas. The answer was that it was more of a boon than a curse.

The summary slides were delivered to delegates a few weeks ago, and are now available here.
http://www.cir-strategy.com/events/cleanpower/summary12.htm

Please do call +441223303500 if you wish to discuss the conference or its followups.

The next conferences are:

iHEAT 2012 – intelligent heating systems, covering accumulator tanks, energy accumulation for thermal stores, heat metering, measurement & controls, and intelligent automation for optimised low carbon buildings. A great set of business growth sectors.
This is the 6th in the HEAT Cleantech Series since 2007.
There will also be a Conference in parallel at the venue on intelligent water systems and on waste as resource, which will build on the HVM 2008 Conference on Resource Efficiency.

This conference is sponsored entirely from the private sector through ARM, the global chip design company, Schneider Electric, and Galu, an SME manufacturer.

See http://www.cir-strategy.com/events/heat for more information and to register.

HVM 2012 – 10th Anniversary Conference – this exciting anniversary conference will be led by Professor Sir Mike Gregory CBE from the IfM, which has recently published a report on high value manufacturing, and will feature Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Chancellor Elect of Cambridge University and former Science and Innovation Minister and 3-time speaker in the HVM Conference Series since 2002.
Plastic Logic, TAP Biosystems, Owlstone and many other private sector entrepreneurs will keynote through the day. This private sector led, pro-innovation-business conference takes place on 14 November at Cambridge University. There are no government funds used to put on the conference. CIR and Plastic Logic are supporting the conference inter alia to be announced.

Please call +441223303500 for more information or for marketing your brand, product or service at the event (places limited). The website will be at http://www.cir-strategy.com/events/hvm from mid September.

Lord Oxburgh keynotes on ‘Shale Gas – Curse or Boon?’ at Cleanpower Conference 14 June

 

(Lord) Ron Oxburgh

Shale gas is natural gas that, unlike conventional gas, never escaped from the source rock within which it was formed because the source was too impermeable. Modern technology has allowed this gas to be exploited by a combination of detailed sub-surface imaging, precisely controlled directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The application of these technologies is still in its infancy and some unfortunate and weakly regulated attempts to exploit shale gas have been made without making proper use of them resulting in some highly undesirable environmental consequences that include unintended gas seepages and pollution of ground water.  This has led to some strong local resistance to new shale gas exploration.

The world’s shale gas resources are probably very large but detailed exploration has yet to be done in many places. However, shale gas has more than doubled US gas reserves. China appears to have even larger reserves. In countries where it occurs, however, shale gas is likely to displace coal as the preferred fuel for power generation and to that extent will reduce the carbon footprint of electricity. However the continued availability of gas may weaken efforts to find sustainable alternatives.

End of Talk Summary for Lord Oxburgh Keynote on 14 June at New Hall Cambridge University CB3 0GT.

#SGCP

Biography for Ron Oxburgh

Ron Oxburgh is an independent member of the House of Lords and is currently chairman of 2OC, Green Energy Options and the Carbon Capture and Storage Association. He was formerly President of Queens’ College Cambridge, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Rector of Imperial College and Chairman of Shell.

Conference in Cambridge sponsored by ARM offers unique look at the gamut of grids, metering and power innovations

Smart Grids & Cleanpower 2012

Conference Cambridge sponsored by ARM offers unique look at the gamut of grids, metering and power innovations 

Moving to smart infrastructure requires modernization. There is pressure. This calls for innovation. As renewable input increases, so variability increases. Will embedded, incumbent technologies remain in place through subsidies and regulatory lock-ins? Will interventions result in more lobbying and less market-based-learning about private sector customers? As we remove the need for intrusion into millions of houses to read meters, and deliver more services, so we should meet difficulties around security of data and system. Therein lie many opportunities for entrepreneurs. VCs seeking risk will be assessing these opportunities in clean technology carefully, looking keenly at how policy-making evolves around grants for innovation and R&D, market reform and (de)-regulation, standards, and targets. New products, processes, markets and ancillary services are likely to be created.

 

Future trends and opportunities often emerge unpredictably from the wider range of technologies being developed. This conference (#SGCP) will stage an innovation pitching competition from sector startups/SMEs, not restricted to the core “metering rollout” in which prizes are offered by sponsors.

 

Lord Oxburgh will talk in the Cleanpower stream about large, often controversial lower carbon opportunities in the context of an unreliable new-nuclear sector in the UK and implications. Dr Bernie Bulkin, Chair, ORED, DECC will talk about technologies to meet targets, what this means for government strategy.

Professor Ross Anderson of the famed Computer Lab at Cambridge will challenge the smart-meter-rollout plan alongside leading technology providers for rollout and government, in what promises to be an exciting opening session, in the smart grids stream. EON will talk about the growing need for non-energy-generating services of power plants, a source of opportunity for many entrepreneurs. UK Power Networks discuss projects around connecting wind energy to the grid and about network integration in a session focusing on regulation and distribution policy with Ofgem.

Among applications of investible power and grid technology being showcased, the CEO of Eight19, the award-winning offgrid solar company operating in Africa and soon in India, will talk about “powering the unGrid”.

Example Confirmed Speakers/Panellists

  • Lord Oxburgh, Ron Oxburgh, eminent expert on energy
  • Dr Bernie Bulkin DECC – Chair, Office Renewable Energy Deployment
  • Robert Hull, Director, OfGem – E-Serve, Co-ordinating Offshore Wind Rollout
  • Dora Guzeleva, Head of Networks Policy, OfGem, Smarter Grids: Distribution
  • Richard Smith, National Grid, Future development of the UK’s energy networks
  • Cristiano Marantes, UK Power Networks, Projects connecting wind to grid
  • EON New Build and Technology, Greg Payne, Additional Services Opportunities in Power
  • ARM Holdings plc, the Global Chip Design Leader
  • Siemens – Infrastructure & Cities
  • Schneider Electric – Metering & Grid Products
  • Jeremy Nicholson, Senior Advisor, Energy Intensive Users Group, EEF, Chairman of Cleanpower
  • Christine McGourty, Director, Energy UK, Moderator
  • Dr Sarah Darby, Lecturer, Oxford University – Smart Meters & Consumers
  • Prof Ross Anderson, Cambridge University, Computer Lab, Smart Meters: Challenges of System Security
  • Prof John Miles, Cambridge University, Engineering Dept, Clean Energy: At What Price?
  • Keith Dickerson, Committee Member, International Telecoms Union, Standards: Where are we headed?
  • Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO, Eight19, Powering the unGrid!
  • Peter Sharratt, Head of Sustainability Services, Deloitte
  • Alan South, Commercial Director, Solar Century, Solar sector trends, FiTs, RHI et al
  • Laing O’Rourke, Lessons Learned for Grids from Aerospace & Defence Technology Deployment

 

6 USPs of the Smart Grids & Cleanpower Conference

1) The only one-day, two stream conference in Europe to cover wider aspects of grid, power, metering technology strategy for emergent future trends (looking at the 80-tail not just the 20-core!)

2) 4 years of assembling the thought leaders, strategists, academics and innovators in the business

3) Refresh and build all your relationships and learning in a single day out of the office

4) Dedicated innovation pitching competition

5) High proportion of delegates are at director level

6) Pricing to suit all key categories of valued delegate for excellent networking

You can attend this year’s 4th Smart Grids & Cleanpower 2012 Conference on 14 June 10am-530pm at Murray Edwards College, CB3 ODR

Web homewww.cir-strategy.com/events/cleanpower

Tel 01223 303500

Email: grids@cir-stategy.com

Text: Just send “SGCP N delegates” to 07720047402 and we’ll follow up the booking for you.

Online Booking: www.cir-strategy.com/events/register

Home Energy and Technology (HEAT) 2008 Conference Summary

Conference Home

A buzz of over 100 people and 10 exhibitors discussed for 10 hours in 12 talks, 5 special elevator pitches, 2 panel sessions, and 3 hours of social networking, ways to cut in a big way emissions to do with the built environment, as well as ways of building their businesses. The sins of greenwashing: ‘every little helps’; vagueness (what are the figures?); lack of proof; lying; hidden costs or omissions; mentioning only the better of two bad things; were all at the forefront of the minds of delegates at this independent conference on home energy and technology. 

The day began with a description of the difficulties for the early pioneers: solar thermal with storage of heat. Few had such systems, according to a quick audience survey, but the experience in building them into an old house were clear: hire specialists, do not choose builders who don’t care about energy matters. If it is not in their hearts and minds, they will not enjoy the work and you will waste effort and money just getting them to install it properly, and indeed do all the basic things needed to facilitate it, such as lagging all pipes and cutting out drafts.
Using a super efficient solar accumulator tank, much larger than a normal one, and with vastly greater insulation, one could reduce the loss of energy from it to 40-100W as compared to nearly 500W from a normal tank, thus reducing temperature loss overnight to 2-3C, rather than 25-30C. By taking in energy from solar thermal flatplate panels or collectors, one could heat this water and store that energy as a thermal store; and then use it for the radiators and hot water taps. By early March in Cambridge, an average system is heating the water up to more than 40C on a day with a decent run of sunshine.

An example was given of a very careful person’s carbon footprint: but air travel to visit relatives in the US made it very difficult to be significantly below average. The solar thermal system led to a heating-related emissions level of just one third the national average.

The keynote speaker in the morning stated that energy use was set to increase by 57% between 2002 and 2025 according to EPRI, ACEEE and IMS research.
With a chip design company, he was focused on efficient end-use of energy, with the other two pillars of sustainable energy mentioned as renewables and efficient delivery of primary energy to end-use. Poor efficiency of electrical output used in motion was singled out at the area his company could do most with regarding reduction of energy use, and was half of all electrical energy consumption. He suggested that 60% of energy in electrical motors could be saved and that small motors were the best places to look to achieve this (those of less than 10-20kW power).

The claim was that switching to energy efficient motor driven systems can save Europe up to 341 billion kWh/Euro 31 billion per year in electricity (according to BERR, Eurostat and SEEEM 2006). This would translate to about 42 billion kWh for the UK, which is 2 kWh a person a day. This is a small amount of our energy, perhaps about 11% of our electrical energy usage in the UK (not including losses in conversion). In the UK we all use about 125 kWh/day across all types of energy, 18kWh a person a day is in electrical usage but a further 27kWh a person a day is in losses from the primary sources of electrical energy. (see Mackay “Sustainable Energy”).

The speaker went on to say that a range of stakeholders benefit from energy efficiency: Who? Manufacturers can have a more reliable product; service providers should have fewer product returns; The customer has lower energy bills; The government is helped with its energy (sustainability and security) policy; and last but not least, the environment is better protected.

The next speaker presented micro and nano scale energy re-cycling techniques. He looked at savings in electronic design for packaging, air conditioning battery packs. His intelligent output driver would “reduces power losses in driven load by up to 75% and reduce the number of components in a system.” He promised technology for the future which would recycle energy within chips.

Another speaker suggested that refrigeration is a significant source of emissions and inefficiencies and could be helped by better technologies.

Two speakers talked of the need to measure energy and emissions (in the home) through smart metering, so that the homeowner could make better decisions. For example, putting washing into a tumble dryer might be 10% of ones energy bill, whereas putting that washing on the line costs zero or near zero energy and emissions, though it takes more time and effort. The point is that by knowing what the ‘big tickets’ are one can address those and not waste too much time on those which are not, such as phone chargers (less than 0.1% of the average bill).

Looking at the grid for electricity as a whole, another speaker showed a picture of the US from the sky at night, looking very bright across of high percentage of the land mass, and said that $1000Bn of investment was needed to right an aging grid seeing increasing demand.

She noted the stringent regulations on carbon emissions to come. The upgraded smart grid would see many distributed resources complementing central renewable generation of various kinds. This would make grids more resilient to various problems such as faults and natural disasters and would be optimised for variable load factors. The grid would provide higher quality power. Time of use pricing would become more visible and wholesale markets better integrated (“market empowerment”).

The smart grid would not only do all the above, but enable energy storage as needed, so as not to waste it so much and to reduce the overall levels needed to be generated. There would be benefits to utilities and demand smoothing with distributed generation and storage.

The speaker talked of a ‘jigsaw puzzle’ involving utility company and consumer and their settlement based around a number of factors: consumption or ‘negawatts’ (not); small scale generation; large-scale generation; and efficient distribution.

There was a business opportunity for those controlling the home side of the smart grid; consumers would see benefits from the smart grid, which this speaker claimed was real, not theoretical.

The idea of patenting inventions and various other legal areas such as trademarks and copyrighting were presented as ways to procure competitive defence, offensive strategy and licensing models and last but not least as a bargaining chip/selling point and valuation driver in negotiations.

The solar session followed after lunch networking.
The first speaker talked of solar thermal. He had carried out pilot studies with various types of household: e.g. two adults and a child; three children; one adult and two children; two adults and so on. Generally, over one year, they diverted from 30% to 70% of their gas usage to ‘free’ solar.

He went on to show that solar thermal and air source heat pumps gave the biggest ‘bang for buck’ on CO2 emissions reductions as compared with PV and micro-wind. PV was not far off the pace; wind was very low.

BERRs renewable energy strategy document suggested 7 million solar thermal installations was the target. This would correspond to a quarter of all homes? The HEAT audience survey showed about 3% having installed solar thermal technology.

A speaker on transparent solar energy said that “PV is one of the world’s fastest growing industries -averaging 34% cagr for 30 years and 44% in past 5 years with doubling in 2008 alone. Its installed capacity was only 252MW in 2008, 3073MW in 2007 and some 5000MW in 2008. The PV market was worth some Euro 6bn in 2007 and projected to be worth Euro 10bn in 2008 growing to Euro 30bn by 2012. The forecast for 2013 is $100bn revenues and 23GW (LuxResearch); production doubled in 2008 and forecast to reach 29000MW in 2012. Commercial investment in PV in 2007 alone has been Euro 32bn rising 77% over the previous year.

PV’s growth was reflected in application shift. In 1997 only 8% PV was grid connected. In 2007 90% was grid connected”. Yet, he went on, “the opportunity is just touching the surface. Germany and Spain alone represent 70% of demand and Japan and California most of the
remainder.”

PV market drivers are energy security, fuel costs/cost volatility (grid parity within reach), global warming and imposed regulations and feed-in tariffs.

Another PV speaker looked at how PV was first “off-planet” then “off-grid” and now “on-grid”.

A chart was shown giving the price of PV generated electricity in 1990 to 2040, with worst case values coming down to Euro 40 cents in 2010 and then down to Euro 20 cents in 2020 and on down to Euro 10 cents by 2035. Best case prices were at Euro 18, 13 and 5 cents at those corresponding dates. Prices reached those of the grid between 2008 and 2020 for highest grid prices and between 2020 and 2034 for lowest grid prices.

A chart of countries’ situations showed Italy reaching grid parity now, California, Spain and Australia reaching it well before 2020, and other nations trailing, notably China and India. The south of the UK appeared to fall just after the 2020 grid parity curve.

Examples were given of EU nations’ feed-in tariffs, such as France, where a very favourable, guaranteed tariff payment to those people generating PV of Euro 57 cents per kWh. It is clear that for most systems this would mean that there would be a net income back to the customer for that 20 year period. The UK lags badly this kind of initiative, and one wonders what political capital problem there can be in implementing it. One hopes given France and Germany have done it, this is not the reason why the UK cannot follow: the UK can decide to it in spite of this, if needs be.

The business model resulting from such FiTs was presented, giving a claimed 12-14% IRR (which takes into account capex for the installation). The building owner would lease her roof space for the system thus obtaining an income from it that wasn’t there before, the PV developer would install it, and the third party investor would benefit from that positive IRR.

An alternative model was that the bank would finance the installation by a service company for a homeowner, who would obtain a small income for ten years and a larger one for a further ten to twenty years. The service company would also design the system and arrange the finance with the bank.

It was estimated that from 20% up to 59% of electricity in the largest 5 Western European states could be derived from solar PV: 178 to 512 of 860 Terawatt hours a year.

The industry’s target as of 2008 was 12% of EU electricity to come from PV by 2020, corresponding to a 350GWp (Gigawatt peak power).

A member of the audience discussed his own PV system and claimed that it had provided more than half of his electricity on tap and had paid for the entire bill through selling back to the energy ‘provider’.

The final speaker in the solar session had a rather different technology, that of concentrated solar power. This works by converting heat produced from solar thermal energy directed from a system of mirrors to steam and then the steam drives turbines that create electricity, which is sent into the grid.

The speaker suggested that carbon capture and storage doesn’t work, because the CO2 leaks out and was susceptible to natural shocks. He also claimed that it was uneconomic and not ready.

He described nuclear energy as “one major incident from shutdown” and cited the power plants, fuel reprocessing and toxic nuclear waste as possible causes of this. He noted the 10-15 year implementation timescale that was almost as bad as for CCS.

He noted the challenges for renewables of load-matching, financing and political collaboration.

Concentrated solar power was beneficial in that it had lower costs, higher cell efficiencies and low areas needed.
It could be applied to cooling as well as heating. Also: air-conditioning; desalination; power generation and water pumping.

The CSP technology would also meet green targets reduce business exposure to energy price spikes and decouple the timing of projects from the availability of the power grid or gas networks.

There was a discussion on ‘Solar communities’, timely infrastructure, walking communities, mobility, lower cost long term and silent energy. The idea was that cities have become, like SUVs, ‘unfit for purpose’.

In the final session, an investment fund spoke of energy efficiency as key to the energy problem. They showed a German Advisory Council chart claiming that solar would provide just under 25% of global primary energy by 2050, with fossil fuels and nuclear still at 50%, and other renewable carriers making up the 25% or so combined. By 2100, they foresaw that solar energy would represent 75% of the mix, with fossil fuels and nuclear having reduced right down to 10-15%.

A company offering the construction of code 5-6 “passive homes” under modern methods of construction, in very short timescales from partial kit form, gave a highly interesting talk. Clearly, since we are currently generally at code level 3, this would be a tremendous leap-frog. Housing associations are very interested in passive homes, for obvious reasons. The current building industry slump clearly isn’t helping this type of development go ahead.
The speakers told the conference that: “Domestic property contributes 27% of UK’s CO2 emissions. The Government is seeking to reduce the emissions from new homes to zero carbon in all new housing by 2016.”

Space heating was claimed to be just under 60% of household energy consumption.
Assuming that the space heating causes approximately the same level of emissions per unit energy as the rest of the energy use, this means that by eliminating the need for space-heating we could save a maximum of 16% of our CO2 emissions nationally by building or retrofitting to only Passive Houses. Of course this is unlikely! But for any new builds, it can be done.

What is passive house? The speaker likened it to a super efficient thermos flask rather than a wasteful hot-plate for a jug of coffee. With the thermos flask, the coffee remains hot for a period of time, and the flask is “off-grid”.

The aim is to keep the heat within the house. One uses heat exchanger coils to transfer heat from outgoing ‘used air’ to the fresh air coming in. That is, a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery provides clean and healthy air around the clock, eliminating the need to air the house manually. The building is airtight. The design is such that the southfacing aspects allow in warmth through triple-glazed windows. The walls are thicker. More sustainable materials than concrete and steel are typically used. The way that heat is lost through the roof and floor is dealt with with new technologies. While nothing is ever perfect, this set of arrangements makes the house vastly better at keeping in heat.

The first offsite-manufactured Passive House in the world was built in Ireland in 2003, in just 25 days!

The UK Government wants 3 million new homes built by 2020….35% to be social and affordable! All new homes to be zero-carbon from 2016. This speaker claimed the solution was to apply pre engineered, offsite manufactured, Passive
House technology to all new homes in UK.

We look forward to 2009 seeing you for continuing conversations and discussions on 19 June, 25 September, 3-4 December!