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News - View presentations from Bioenergy Conference
The speaker presentations from the Bioenergy Conference held in Oxford are now available to download below.
Gary Shanahan, Department of Trade & Industry (UK) - 'The Role of Biomass in Meeting Our Energy Challenge'
Keith Richards, TV Energy (UK) - 'Hastening the return of bioenergy'
Godfrey Bevan, TV Energy (UK) - 'Understanding the role of the International Energy Agency'
Graham Tubb, SEEDA (UK) - 'Making the regional policy lead on sustainable energy count'
Andy Hall, Forestry Commission (UK) - 'Towards a wood fuel strategy for England'
Virginia Bombelli, Koba (IT) - 'Sustainable rural communities and bioenergy'
John Watson, Slough Heat & Power (UK) - 'Slough Heat & Power - a successful conversion to wood fuel'
Mary Miller, TV Energy (UK) - 'Taking the risk out of sustainable energy projects - the ESCo approach' (presentation not available)
Crispin Webber, Thames Energy (UK) - 'Examining the potential for bio-fuels - an existing ESCo case study'
Theo Verwijst, University of Agricultural Sciences (SWE) - 'The importance of energy crops'
Ian Nicholas, Scion (NZ) - 'Willow Establishment Trial in New Zealand'
Bill White, Forest Service (CA) - 'Bioenergy in Alberta: Challenges and opportunities in an energy-rich Canadian province'
Brendan George, NSW Department of Primary Industries (AUS) - 'Production potential for short-cycle woody crops for bioenergy production in low-rainfall area of Australia'
Michael Beech, TV Energy (UK) - 'Bioenergy in the built environment'
Ewan Bent, Midlands Wood Fuel Ltd (UK) - 'Wood fuel in The West Midlands'
Marilyn Buford, Forest Service (US) - 'Changing perspective of US bioenergy'
Julije Domac, Hrvoje Pozar (CRO) - 'Feeding the charcoal supply chain - comparative analysis of Croatia and Brazil case studies'
Karl Hansen, The Living Rainforest (UK) - 'A local wood fuel win with a global story to tell'
Eddie Johansson, Enköping CHP (SWE) - 'Community biomass - wood in preference to fossil and nuclear power'
Gary Amos, npower (UK) - 'Large-scale biomass co-firing' (presentation not available)
Declan Meally, SEI (IRE) - 'The holistic solution: the Dundalk project'
Realising the Promise of Bioenergy conference concludes
Sept 06: 70 delegates per day from the Thames Valley, the UK and overseas attended the biomass conference at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford, organised by TV Energy and IEA Bioenergy Agreement Task 29 & 30. The conference, which attracted experts from more than a dozen countries, was covered on BBC Radio Oxfordshire and will also be reported in EnAgri Weekly magazine (see http://www.enagri.info/magazine/current_issue.php).
The conference examined best practice from across the world in growing, managing, using and commercialising wood fuel based Bioenergy systems. It drew on leading experts from north America, Europe, Asia and New Zealand to explain what is happening elsewhere. We will also set out what is being achieved in the Thames Valley and the SE Region through partnership working with Slough Heat and Power and others to establish a sustainable wood fuel supply infrastructure able to support a plethora of local wood fuel schemes.
Managing and using our local biomass resource to deliver substantial green bioenergy is a continuing challenge for the UK. Recent reports and reviews including the Biomass Task Force and the Government response emphasise once again that Bioenergy is indeed a critical part of any sustainable future strategy for the UK. However to date, realising the promise of Bioenergy has completely eluded us.
This regional and international conference aimed to address the issues of why have we failed where other countries have been so successful, and what we must now do to claim the Bioenergy prize...
Keynote speakers on Monday 18th September included Godfrey Bevan CBE (formerly DTI), Gary Shanahan (DTI) and Keith Richards (TV Energy), while a range of experts from home and abroad were called upon to discuss key policy issues affecting bioenergy, and other drivers in the South East of England, the UK as a whole, and other EU member states. Later on, guests at the conference dinner at the Hotel in the evening were addressed by Sir Ben Gill (formerly of NFU and lead author of the Government's Biomass Task Force report), who spoke entertainingly on the reasons for the lack of wide-scale wood fuel usage in England.
Tuesday's proceedings got under way with a similar mix of experience and analysis from around the region and around the world. Wood fuel production, bioenergy infrastructure and usage all featured in dedicated speaker sessions. A large number of delegates had elected to visit local examples of bioenergy in Oxfordshire and Slough the following day, which passed off with an interesting set of site tours, which demonstrated what could be done on a wider scale in various applications in the Thames Valley and beyond.
The detailed conference programme containing the events and speaker schedule for all three days can be downloaded here.
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