This year's conference helped underline the rapid changes nowtaking place with regard to the repositioningof energy policies and the re-alignment of the energy mix at national, regional and global level.
This year's conference helped underline the rapid changes nowtaking place with regard to the repositioningof energy policies and the re-alignment of the energy mix at national, regional and global level.
With more than 250 delegates, 70 moderators, speakers and panelists from Greece and abroad IENE's annual conference proved once again an invaluable source of information and networking. Spread between two days, on November 21-22, and with 12 sessions, some of them parallel, the conference offered a panorama in terms of policy formulation, analysis and project advances.
The conference was opened by a keynote speech by Greece's Deputy Minister for Energy and Environment Mr. Gerasimos Thomas, who is in charge of the energy sector. Mr. Thomas stressed the government's commitment to implement major changes by 2030 in order to decarbonise as much as possible the country's energy
system, promote RES and energy efficiency and also improve energy security. " As in the past lignite proved to be the national treasure which helped develop its economy in the post war period, likewise today we can use Renewable Energy Sources to boostthe economy and aim towards a clean environment", underlined Greece's energy minister.
Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the conference was the presentation by Kieran McNamara of IEA's World Energy Outlook 2019 which had been published only the previous week. A key finding of this year's Outlook was that the Energy world is marked by a series of deep disparities as almost one billion people remain without access to electricity. The IEA has worked out a number of scenarios, which were presented at the conference, showing how energy supply and use will feature over the next 20 to 30 years. Of great interest was also the presentation by Irene Nikolaou, policy officer at DG Climate in Brussels, as she outlined the Commission's roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2050 and all the intermediate steps that need to be made and specific actions to be undertaken by member countries.
For the first time an Ambassador's Forum was included in this year's conference proceedings which proved a huge success judging from the large number of delegates who attended and the lively discussion which ensued. Honoured guests included HE the ambassador of the People's Republic of China Ms. Zhang Qiyue and HE the ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Kyriakos Kenevezos. Mr. Tim Yeo, chairman of the New Nuclear Watch Institute, ex parliamentarian and former minister
for environment and energy, presented UK's experience with coal and how it eclipsed few years ago as the national fuel giving ground to natural gas. The transformation of the old mining towns and regions into modern centres for manufacturing and technology development helped revive economically many impoverished areas, Tim Yeo noted among others.
Dr. Andrei Konoplyanik, adviser to the director general of Gazprom Export and professor at the State Gubkin Oil & Gas University provideda well documented analysis on the role of gas in modern day energy use and discussed gas's future role in the context of EC's new green policies. Professor Pantelis Capros, chair of energy economics at NTUA and head of the E3M Lab, presented his latest analysis on European goals and targets and how the adoption of new technologies is expected to play a vital role in the achievement of these goals.
The session on investment in energy infrastructure also proved to be one of the most popular in the conference and included a presentations by Aristotle Chantavas , from ENEL Green Power, on its latest 160 MW wind project in Greece, the progress on the IGB gas interconnector presented byGeorge Polychroniou of DEPA and the latest gas development project at the Karish and Tanin fields in Israel as reported by Dimitris Gontikas from Energean. Mr. John Papathanasiou, chairman of Hellenic Petroleum, Greece's largest integrated energy company, presented his views on the fuels of the future and the work that HELPE is currently engaged in towards this direction.
The conference's full proceedings with the majority of keynote speeches and presentations included will shortly become available through a special microsite which IENE is currently preparing, details of which will be announced shortly.
This year's conference helped underline the rapid changes now taking place with regard to the repositioning of energy policies and the re-alignment of the energy mix at national, regional and global level. With more than 250 delegates, 70 moderators, speakers and panelists from Greece and abroad IENE's annual conference proved once again an invaluable source of information and networking. Spread between two days, on November 21-22, and with 12 sessions, some of them parallel, the conference offered a panorama in terms of policy formulation, analysis and project advances.
Opening the conference the chairman of IENE Mr. Costis Stambolis observed that the event is taking place at a time of major changes in the global and regional energy scene, especially as decarbonisation efforts are now accelerating in Europe but also in other parts of the world. However, as global energy demand continues to grow so do emissions, which were up by 2,0% last year, and hence the fight to mitigate the negative effects of Climate Change is global, rather than national or regional. In Greece's case which has seen its emissions lowered every year, a huge effort is now in progress to increase the contribution of renewable energy which currently correspond to 16% of the final energy consumption and cover some 23 % of the electricity mix.
In his keynote speech by Greece's Deputy Minister for Energy and Environment Mr. Gerasimos Thomas, who is in charge of the energy sector. Mr. Thomas stressed the government's commitment to implement major changes by 2030 in order to decarbonise as much as possible the country's energy system, promote RES and energy efficiency and also improve energy security. " As in the past lignite proved to be the national treasure which helped develop its economy in the post war period, likewise today we can use Renewable Energy Sources to boost the economy and aim towards a clean environment", underlined Greece's energy minister. The minister confirmed the government' ambitious targets with regard to the contribution of RES to more than 60% in the electricity mix and 35 % in the final energy consumption by 2030.
Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the conference was the presentation by Kieran McNamara of IEA's World Energy Outlook 2019 which had been published only the previous week. A key finding of this year's Outlook was that the Energy world is marked by a series of deep disparities as almost one billion people remain without access to electricity. The IEA has worked out a number of scenarios, which were presented at the conference, showing how energy supply and use will feature over the next 20 to 30 years. Of great interest was also the presentation by Irene Nikolaou, policy officer at DG Climate in Brussels, as she outlined the Commission's roadmap for carbon neutrality by 2050 and all the intermediate steps that need to be made and specific actions to be undertaken by member countries.
For the first time an "Ambassador's Forum" was included in this year's conference proceedings which proved a huge success judging from the large number of delegates who attended and the lively discussion which ensued. Honoured guests included HE the ambassador of the People's Republic of China Ms. Zhang Qiyue and HE the ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Kyriakos Kenevezos. Mr Tim Yeo, chairman of the New Nuclear Watch Institute, ex parliamentarian and former minister for environment and energy, presented UK's experience with coal and how it eclipsed few years ago as the national fuel gave ground to natural gas. The transformation of the old mining towns and regions into modern centres for manufacturing and technology development helped revive economically many impoverished areas, Tim Yeo noted among others.
Dr. Andrei Konoplyanik, adviser to the director general of Gazprom Export and professor at the State Gubkin Oil&Gas University provided a well documented analysis on the role of gas in modern day energy use and discussed gas's future role in the context of EC's new green policies. Professor Pantelis Capros, chair of energy economics at NTUA and head of the E3M Lab, presented his latest analysis on European goals and targets and how the adoption of new technologies is expected to play a vital role in the achievement of these goals.
The session on investment in energy infrastructure also proved to be one of the most popular in the conference and included a presentations by Aristotle Chantavas, from ENEL Green Power, on its latest 160 MW wind project in Greece, the progress on the IGB gas interconnector presented by George Polychroniou of DEPA and the latest gas development project at the Karish and Tanin fields in Israel as reported by Dimitris Gontikas from Energean. Mr. John Papathanasiou, chairman of Hellenic Petroleum, Greece's largest integrated energy company, presented his views on the fuels of the future and the work that HELPE is currently engaged in towards this direction.
The conference's full proceedings with the majority of keynote speeches and presentations included will shortly become available through a special microsite which IENE is currently preparing, details of which will be announced shortly.
