On 9th and 10th May 2016, Glennmont Partners held its 9th Annual Clean Energy seminar in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event brought together key institutional investors and a range of renewable energy thought leaders to reflect, discuss and analyse the trends that are shaping our industry and promoting investment in the sector.
On the speaker panel was Maria van der Hoeven, former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency and former Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands and Supervisory Board Member of RWE. Maria opened the event with a discussion on the Paris Agreement being a major turning point in supporting climate change action. With 190 members signed up to a legally binding action and a very large number of private companies, cities and other entities laying down commitments to add renewable energy in the coming year, the EU is on track to achieve 50% of renewable electricity by 2050. Maria van der Hoeven was very confident that renewable power generation will continue to grow.
Maria van der Hoeven speaking at Glennmont Partners 9th Annual Clean Energy seminar
We also had a presentation from Anders Thorsen, Chief Underwriter at Eksport Kredit Fonden (EKF). Anders described EKF’s role as Denmark´s official export credit agency. With more than 94 years of experience, EKF is owned and guaranteed by the Danish state and operates on commercial terms. So far EKF has helped to create and retain more than 120,000 jobs in Denmark many of which in the renewable energy space. EKF has been a very active lender in the UK biomass sector participating in more than 6 out of 21 recent projects. EKF likes the biomass sub segment in the UK where many Danish construction companies are active.
Richard Furniss, Nordex Country Manager for UK and Ireland gave an update on the future of on shore wind turbine manufacturing. Nordex is a top 3 global wind turbine manufacturer and has recently purchased Acciona. Mr Furniss outlined that the on shore wind sector is on track to become competitive without subsidies. Larger turbines and bigger rotors will allow for a further reduction of costs. The market in Europe will continue to grow and regulators will need to continue to make zoning for wind turbines easier.
Visiting Avedøre biomass Power Station
On the last day of the seminar, attendees toured Avedøre biomass Power Station. Avedøre Power Plant is a high-technology facility and has over time converted from using coal, petroleum (oil) and natural gas to a wide variety of biomass fuels such as straw and wood pellets. The plant consists of two units with a total capacity of 793 MW of electricity and 918 MW of heat. The recent phase of the plant was built by BWSC who also constructed Sleaford REP on behalf of Glennmont.
