2021 Wind Energy Ireland Annual Conference
The 2021 Conference will take place virtually over 3 days from Tuesday 13th April to Thursday 15th April. The overall theme of the conference is ‘No. 1 by 2025: Ireland's Number 1 Power Source by 2025 ’. Under Ireland’s interim climate targets, renewable electricity in Ireland needs to be at 52% by 2025 and this will be predominantly made up of wind energy. Throughout our three day conference, expert speakers in our panels will highlight how critical the next five years are to achieving this goal, along with Ireland’s 70% renewable target by 2030 and longer term zero carbon targets for 2050.
Two main sessions will take place over each of the three days and will cover the following topics with this vision in mind:
- Day 1 – Tuesday 13th April – Following our keynote in the morning, the first session will look at the past, the present and the future of Ireland’s renewable targets, focusing on how we hit 40% by 2020, how we will hit 70% by 2030 and how we will achieve net zero carbon by 2050. The second session will bring together senior members of leading Government and semi-state stakeholders to discuss the actions needed over the next 5 years to deliver our targets.
- Day 2 – Wednesday 14th April – The second day of the conference will have two sessions which take us through the main challenges to be addressed and recent successes across the planning sector for onshore and offshore renewables, along with updates on Ireland’s next onshore and offshore auctions and how the electricity market on the island will evolve in a post-Brexit era to accommodate a 70% renewable electricity system.
- Day 3 – Thursday 15th April – The final day of the conference will delve into the critical areas of grid capacity and dispatch down and the importance of being able to operate the power system with high renewables in 2030. The final session will take a look at important lessons for community engagement for onshore and offshore renewables which we can learn from several of the key community and environmental bodies our industry engages with.
On the practical side, since the event will be virtual we are only running presentation sessions in the morning to lunchtime (9:00-13:15). The afternoon will be reserved for networking and ‘Meet the Expert’ sessions, which participants will be able to do via the virtual platform we will use to host the conference.
