All-Energy 2005

The fifth All-Energy conference and exhibition was held in Aberdeen on 25 and 26 May. More than 200 companies exhibited their products and services. The 2,150 participants represented an increase of 20% over the previous year. The renewables show in the ‘Energy City’ Aberdeen was clearly successful.

{access view=!registered}Only logged in users can view the full text of the article.{/access}{access view=registered}The event was held in association with the British Wind Energy Association and the Scottish Renewables Forum. The Society for Underwater Technology was the learned society patron and Aberdeen City Council was the principal sponsor. At the event, the whole spectrum of renewable energy was covered. Conference sessions were held on topics such as on- and offshore wind, fuel cell technology and biomass, and also on issues like grid connection and funding and financing renewable projects. In this review I will mention a few things that caught my eye with regards to the wind energy business.

The exhibition floor and the conference rooms were well situated. Between sessions, the attendees automatically ended up at the exhibition floor to explore what the vendors had on offer. This led to a lot of traffic in the aisles between sessions but there were also plenty of people around during the sessions. I believe the exhibitors were very satisfied with the quantity and quality of the visitors.

The whole spectrum of companies within the wind energy industry was present in Aberdeen. Although there were also international companies, most of the exhibitors were from the UK and many were from the Aberdeen region. Large numbers of companies presented solutions that had been developed and used in different industries and adapted for the wind energy business. Advantage CFD, for instance, demonstrated fluid models used in renewable applications. The modelling is done computationally. This solution was originally used in industries such as automotives, buildings and pumps, but it can be very useful for manufacturers of turbines and components as well.

The reverse transferral of solutions was on display too. The Balmoral Group is well known for the manufacture of composites. For over 25 years they have manufactured wind turbine nacelle covers. Using the same techniques and materials they have now developed a massage capsule shaped as an egg. It has nothing to do with renewable energy but with its futuristic design it looked fascinating. The Egg offers a totally private, fuss-free and relaxing massage in the space of 15 minutes. For more information you can visit www.the-egg.co.uk.

The Engineering Business Ltd was exhibiting its offshore wind farm enabling technologies. These included a new integrated ploughing and jetting solution for dealing with the problems of trenching cable arrays between turbines. The company also showed its offshore access system WaterBridge. You can read more about this system in our article entitled ‘Offshore Landing Systems’ on page XX in this issue.

Imass Ltd presented an internet solution which could be very helpful for wind farm developers. They showed a map-based internet service to support the evaluation of opportunities for connection of distributed generation to the electricity grid. The project has been developed in cooperation with Econnect. For now, the system will only be operational in the UK, but I imagine it could be implemented in other countries as well. Unfortunately, due to lack of space, I cannot inform you about all the exhibitors but at http://www.all-energy.co.uk/what.php you can get an overview of what the vendors were showing.

On the evening of 25 May a networking event was organised. There was food and drink, and also several fairground attractions! This was a perfect opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones, and, as we all know, a lot of business is conducted during this kind of event. This was the first time the organisation had added a networking evening to the programme and I assume they will continue with it for future events.

The presentations from the conference will become available on CD-ROM in due course. For more information you can contact the organisers at . All-Energy 2006 will be held in Aberdeen, from 24 to 25 May 2006. In this review, it is impossible to give you a complete overview of what was going on and all I can provide is an impression. Therefore, I encourage you to attend the event yourself next year.{/access}