COBCOE and BCCD at the Nordic Climate Solutions Conference

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If you were anywhere near the metro line from Kongens Nytorv to the Bella Centre last week, you may have noticed swarms of people in business clothes carrying brown paper bags, and wondered what was going on. Well, the paper bags were the handouts from the Nordic Climate Solutions conference on 8^th / 9^th September 09. Amongst the people carrying them was an Environment Minister from the Faroe Islands, a group of engineers from a Korean company that makes the resin for wind turbine blades, a journalist from Germany, and a few stragglers responsible for manning the COBCOE stand.

COBCOE is the Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe, an umbrella organisation of which BCCD is a member. The Nordic Climate Solutions conference was an appropriate venue for COBCOE to have a stand, because of the plethora of engineers, economists, politicians, journalists and academics who had gathered to swap ideas and information on solutions for Climate Change and Energy supply issues. These people represented businesses ranging from small business start-ups, through to the largest multi-nationals, creating a perfect environment for making connections whether for networking contacts, or for investment into a new technology.  Mariano A. Davies, BCCD President, was in his element, finding several new potential members and speakers for the chamber.

Howard Rosen, President of COBCOE was one of the speakers in the session ‘Intelligent Growth through Intelligent Energy’, which debated the impact of the financial crisis on the journey to a low carbon economy, as well as the economic impacts of various technology strategies. Another of the very high quality sessions was entitled ‘International Technology Collaboration on Intelligent Energy’ where Duncan Botting from ITI energy, Henrik Bindslev from Risø DTU, Loren Cox from MIT Global Change Joint Program, and Mats Nilsson from Vattenfall discussed the changes required to the power supply grids in Europe and America. These grids were put in place when power supply was operated on a national basis, with a high degree of control – typically a handful of large coal and nuclear power stations around the country. This is in stark contrast to the situation today, when most energy companies have been privatised and split up, and new, less predictable energy supply sources (e.g. wind) have been added. The complexity and unpredictability will increase again, when individual consumers generate part of their own supplies (e.g. with solar panels on the rooftop) and sell their excess power back to the grid.

This could result in big changes for all of us. Consumer attitudes may have to shift from the current assumption of ‘whenever I turn on a switch, it’s my right to have electricity come out’, to being prepared to have our energy companies switch off unnecessary equipment at times of high demand. Loren Cox mentioned that in his home in the states, he already gets a reduced rate from his electricity supplier in exchange for them being able to switch off his swimming pool pump and air conditioning for a few hours per day.

Having sensors and switches in place to be able to achieve this takes time, and the technology has not yet converged on the ‘ideal solution’. It is necessary to use a ‘sticking plaster’ approach to meet the demand for change now, and this will need to be followed up by later upgrades. This prompted the discussion to turn onto the topic of timescales, and the need to match expectations so that political progress can coincide with technological progress, and to ensure mismatches do not cause unnecessary delays. Also, within the area of research it is necessary to further develop our understanding of networks and control of stochastic (random) systems. And instrumentation needs to be able to communicate the right signals using standard protocols – but who will choose the standard? And how do you ensure that creating the necessary standards will not unwittingly impede progress?

So there was plenty of food for thought, and the conference was both well attended and well received. The COBCOE stand may have been in the corner of the room, but we had help attracting visitors:  the PwC stand opposite was showcasing one of the sexiest looking electric cars ever made...