Insights to All-Energy

From an early career's perspective

Every year, developers, suppliers of renewables and low carbon solutions, consultants, planners, policy makers, investors, buyers, and all environment related professionals gather in Glasgow for the UK wide networking event that promises to engage attendees with exhibitions, stands, talks and chances to meet in person with the next link in your network.

All Energy is the largest Renewables exhibition and Conference in the UK, and this year, everyone gathered on the 12th and 13th of May at the usual venue SEC Glasgow for its 25th Anniversary.

A bit of history

For those who are not familiar with this event, it first started taking place in Aberdeen in 2001 when the transition from the oil industry to renewable anergy was still starting to speed up and was not yet as heavy weight as it is today.  At the time the EU still had an indicative target of transition to renewable energy for electricity production of 12% by 2010.  The event happened right before the release of directive 2001/77/EC by the European Union, which aimed to promote the use of renewable energy for electricity production.

In 2004 it was made a free event, and by 2012 it had moved to Glasgow in a sore blow to Aberdeen as a global energy hub and European capital of renewable energy. Glasgow was starting to receive the name of “green energy” city and became host of the largest renewable energy event in the UK.

What started with a 50 exhibitor event with 350 visitors, by 2019 had become a large event with more the 250 exhibitors and nearly 8000 visitors, and were introducing “Dcarbonise” into the event, with the aim of focusing on energy efficiency, low carbon heat, and transport, aligning with net-zero carbon goals.

This year's event

This year, a massive queue at the main entrance marked the beginning of the two days of the event.

The Scottish Events Centre (SEC) Glasgow hosted over 300 exhibitors arranged in what looked like a small city inside the main hall.   including the likes of Scottish Power Renewables (SPR), Scottish Power Energy Transmission (SPEN), SGN (Scottish Gas Network), Vestas and Nordex (Turbine manufacturers), and different consultancies providing a variety of services (RSK Group included).

Although one of the main objectives of this sort of event is to give the possibility to meet potential links in your contact network, the word “networking” on itself puts so much pressure in the act of having a conversation, that most people have planned meeting with clients or colleagues, and walk around the stands for a while just getting familiar with things, seeing who and what’s around, and just finding out new trends going on in the energy sector.  As I walked through the different stands I was fascinated by a video featuring a bladelifter transporting a turbine blade across towns and mountains (Collet even had a scale model of a bladelifter),  a dog shaped robot walking in the middle of a stand, safety gear for turbine maintenance displayed by a mannequin wearing a kilt. I also had interesting conversations with people in businesses I had never seen, and I even got invited to visit Spain.

The event counted with multiple auditoriums and floor theatres dedicated to specific areas of the energy sector, such as Hydrogen; Solar and Storage; Future Grid; Offshore, Onshore and Marine Energy and; Future Talent and community impact.

Although previous years All-Energy had a strong focus on onshore wind, this year the focus shifted to the expansion offshore wind, hydrogen, grid, new technologies, and strategy.

The Strategic Summit Sessions was one of the highlights this year, which brought together government ministers, and senior executives to discuss investment finance, energy security and transmission reform.   Some discussions were presented as a series of “fire-side talks”, with the intention of taking the edge off and make it more comfortable to participants.

Another strong point were the series of presentations on hydrogen.  The Hydrogen theatre was constantly occupied with presentations on green hydrogen and the need to decarbonize industry.

The innovators Hub was also there for the very first time, presenting innovative solutions by start ups looking to make technologies more efficient and safer.

And like in every large event of this nature, resourcing is always on the table.  There were talks and panel discussions aiming to address the skills shortage through development and workforce planning.  There was a special space with an expanded STEM and Education program welcoming students between 12 and 16 so they could get their first experience, learn industry insights and find possible career pathways.

Among other things, I had the chance to attend a talk on advances on solid state Li+ battery with the potential of being used in safer Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), the use/recycling of turbine components post decommissioning, and an EDI talk on gender gap in the environmental sector and how to help close that gap.

I had meetings with clients, and found out the latest industry gossip, chatted with colleagues, students and new graduates looking for their next opportunity.  I even received a CV that I passed on to recruitment.

Although I didn’t have the time to attend all the talks I wanted to, I have to say that my view of the event has changed from the first time that I attended when I was a graduate.  An event this size can be overwhelming no matter how many times you’ve attended, but once you find how to navigate it, it becomes an opportunity to learn not only about the sector, but also how to approach it as a professional.  You get the chance to meet people in different roles, meet in person with colleagues and clients, and find out in hallway conversations what the real dynamics are like in the sector.

Next year’s All-Energy is already being planned for 12 and 13 May 2027 in what promises to be an event just as busy and multidisciplinary this year’s.  Whether you are an early career, you are still studying, or you you’ve been in the workforce for years, chances are there will be something for you.