Forging Meaningful Offshore Business Relations

EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 29 November till 1 December. EWEA has organised the European offshore wind event since 2007. The first conference was held in Berlin and the next one followed in Stockholm, in 2009. The 2011 meeting is expected to attract over 7,500 professionals, which includes senior experts, global offshore players, and companies active in offshore wind and its related industries. Around 300 companies from both current and future offshore wind supply chains will be exhibiting their goods and services.

{access view=!registered}Only logged in users can view the full text of the article.{/access}{access view=registered}Participants attending EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 will be able to discover the latest industry practices, and at the same time get themselves updated on the market trends and the current regulatory and financial frameworks.

The Conference
The conference programme has been developed to provide the 2,000 or so delegates with a 360 degree view of all issues affecting the offshore wind industry. The conference programme comprises over 20 sessions covering wide-ranging topics relating to the offshore wind energy industry. Sessions are clustered into six themes, namely:
  • The great outdoors: assessing the resource
  • Grid and infrastructure
  • Hardware
  • Logistics: getting them there and keeping them running
  • Wind farm experience, lessons learned and what not to do
  • The soft sector and hard cash.
The opening session will include figures from both politics and industry, who will be addressing the question of whether the European offshore wind power industry will be able to replicate the success of onshore wind technology in terms of market deployment, cost-competitiveness and technology maturity. Through keynote speeches, and a moderated debate, speakers will consider the prospects for growth and discuss what facilitators are needed from governments, the European Union, industry itself and the financial sector.

The programme also features a technology focused panel, which will continue the discussion of the questions raised in the opening session. Respected technical experts will consider the role of different technologies in the success of offshore wind power. The discussion will focus on a major issue for the offshore industry, namely the use of direct drive technology versus gearboxes, and what impact this choice will have on turbine weight, cost and maintenance.

The senior experts and experienced professionals speaking at the various sessions will share their knowledge and thoughts with the conference participants through presentations and debates. Some innovative, interactive session formats will also be included, especially for the sessions introducing brand new ideas and concepts.

Those who are new to the wind industry, or who work from a non-technical position, can get an overview of the sector prior to the conference. EWEA, is offering a session ‘Introduction to wind energy’ on 28 November with a particular focus on the offshore sector. This session will build on EWEA's authoritative publication: ‘Wind Energy – The Facts’.

The Exhibition
There will be nearly 300 exhibitors in the well laid-out exhibition space. In total there will be exhibitors from some 25 countries. In addition there will be displays in a growing number of national and regional pavilions: Province of North Holland, France, Norway, Denmark, Scotland and the Seaports of Niedersachsen. In terms of sectors, the exhibition will be representative of the full range of players in the offshore wind energy supply chain: turbines and components manufacturers, developers, O&M, utilities and power generators, environmental consultancies, design houses, finance services and more.

With such growth potential, the offshore wind industry is a very compelling sector for dozens of other businesses already engaged in the marine industries, including construction, logistics, transportation, shipping, offshore planning, and the future supply chain.

Networking Opportunities
Together with expanding business opportunities in the offshore wind industry, the exhibition at EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 gives visitors numerous and useful networking opportunities either at the hundreds of stands in the exhibition, or by attending the wide variety of social events. Those include the networking lunches, the opening reception in the Beurs van Berlage – the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (19.00 on 29 November), the exhibition reception (30 November) and the conference dinner at the national maritime museum (‘Het Scheepvaartmuseum’), one of Amsterdam’s biggest 17th century buildings.

EWEA Publications at the Event
EWEA OFFSHORE 2011 will also see the publication of a new EWEA report on offshore wind power: a compilation of all the valuable information needed to create the 150GW of offshore generating capacity planned to be in place by 2030. This will provide the professionals attending the conference with a detailed ‘state of the industry’ summary for every aspect of the wind industry (from the policy framework after 2020 and grids financing, to supply chain evolution and power production). The new offshore report, along with a broad selection of other recent and relevant EWEA publications, will be available at the event and at the EWEA stand.

Affiliation
EWEA – The European Wind Energy Association
Rue d'Arlon 80
B-1040 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail:
www.ewea.org{/access}
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