7th European Conference on Green Power Marketing 2011
THE AGE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY:
KEY STRATEGIES OF MARKET PLAYERS
The European forum for market players and
decisionmakers in the renewable energy industry
6 and 7 October 2011 | Zurich, Switzerland
Conference Summary - The State of Green Power
A full ten years after its premiere, and with six conferences in Switzerland and Germany already on the record, Green Power Marketing has lost nothing of its lustre. This is what the latest event in the series, the 7th European Conference on Green Power Marketing 2011, proved when on 6 and 7 October 2011 it assembled yet again the diverse commercial and political interests that are currently driving the green power market. Professionals from all over Europe answered the organisers' call to come to Zurich and discuss "The Age of Renewable Energy" and the "Key Strategies of Market Players" that lie behind it.
Political ambition ahead of market realities: room for manoeuvre
Though renewables have meanwhile arrived in the electricity mainstream, there is indeed much need on the part of those with a major stake in the market to share know-how and experience on how to shoulder the transition towards a predominantly green energy industry. A solid foundation for growth has been laid with the EU 2020 targets, and meanwhile also found its way into much more definite national frameworks. Roadmaps and scenarios, from the IPCC to the IEA, are already sketching a 100 % RES world for 2050. The European Commission, moreover, is doing its best to provide legislative stability along the way. Yet, the vibrant political enthusiasm of today has not fully conquered the electricity market.
Grid, system and market integration of renewables - whence the money?
Adequate investment, it seems, will be the cornerstone of future growth. Investments in grid integration of renewables, in the medium to low voltage range to allow for distributed feed-in, and on transmission level to balance bulk loads over great distances. Investments in system integration to counter inherent RE variability. How encourage expensive flexible backup against prioritised feed-in of a cheap alternative? Investments in market integration, finally. Here the question is also one of political legitimation. What kind of support scheme is the most cost-efficient and will burden consumers least? Currently, the pendulum in Europe appears to have swung towards feed-in tariffs. Will it move on to premiums, as the German example suggests, and the EC does in fact recommend? This could be a first step in applying the signals of the market to supported facilities.
Green power beyond public support: utilities in the vanguard of expansion
What about those facilities, however, which do not run under any subsidy but are meant to be marketed on their own terms, with and for their green additional value - a model which is certain to become more widespread as RE technologies approach grid parity. It is here, at what has been the starting point for the entire series, veritable green power marketing, that politics and economics join hands again. On a political microscale, municipal utilities have responded to the challenge of ambitious target-setting by stepping up investments in their own RES-E capacities, spanning from locally mounted PV modules to shares in offshore wind projects of several hundreds of megawatts. To commercialise these far-flung assets, utilities, as much as the power giants of yesteryear, are dependent on an integrated European market, and are now also beginning to lobby for it.
Strategic marketing: renewed importance in a greening electricity sector
The thrust for the market is logical since utilities, too, are operating under the watchful eyes of ever more sophisticated customers who are able to distinguish between the different shades of green in a power portfolio. Sales strategies in "The Age of Renewables" are changing notably to include features that transcend mere green value. Energy efficiency and carbon neutrality are the buzz words of the day. And with these, the conference is indeed back at where it came from. In 2001, Adriana Farah from the OECD Environment Directorate in Paris pinned down the key factors in successful green power marketing: "information and consumer decisions" - they obviously still are, and increasingly will be! Again.
Read about the conference in more detail.
