EWEA 2011: summing it up

Four days, three (very large) exhibition halls and a flurry of seminars and company announcements later, EWEA 2011 finally comes to a close.

It was a busy conference and there was no shortage of deal making taking place on the exhibition hall floors. The mood across the exhibitors was up beat and there was a sense of cautious optimism in the air.

The perennial questions about gearboxes, drive shafts, planning permission, investment, offshore logistics and future technological innovation were of course never far from exhibitors minds but specifics aside, there was also an increasing interest in the bigger European picture. The question of targets, government incentives and legislative changes all gained some pretty serious air time. With all parties broadly in agreement of the need to work more closely together in the future.

And yet despite this patchwork of conversations, there was one issue that was never far from people’s minds. That of the nuclear industry and the terrible crisis in Japan.

And while the ramifications that the tragedy is currently having on the international energy markets will play out for some time to come, the longer term question of the viability of nuclear crops up once again. A European mix of energy sources is of course unquestionable – it’s just how that mix plays out that is already causing the headaches.

Four days, three (very large) exhibition halls and a flurry of seminars and company announcements later, EWEA 2011 finally comes to a close.

It was a busy conference and there was no shortage of deal making taking place on the exhibition hall floors. The mood across the exhibitors was up beat and there was a sense of cautious optimism in the air.

The perennial questions about gearboxes, drive shafts, planning permission, investment, offshore logistics and future technological innovation were of course never far from exhibitors minds but specifics aside, there was also an increasing interest in the bigger European picture. The question of targets, government incentives and legislative changes all gained some pretty serious air time. With all parties broadly in agreement of the need to work more closely together in the future.

And yet despite this patchwork of conversations, there was one issue that was never far from people’s minds. That of the nuclear industry and the terrible crisis in Japan.

And while the ramifications that the tragedy is currently having on the international energy markets will play out for some time to come, the longer term question of the viability of nuclear crops up once again. A European mix of energy sources is of course unquestionable – it’s just how that mix plays out that is already causing the headaches.

Four days, three (very large) exhibition halls and a flurry of seminars and company announcements later, EWEA 2011 finally comes to a close.

It was a busy conference and there was no shortage of deal making taking place on the exhibition hall floors. The mood across the exhibitors was up beat and there was a sense of cautious optimism in the air.

The perennial questions about gearboxes, drive shafts, planning permission, investment, offshore logistics and future technological innovation were of course never far from exhibitors minds but specifics aside, there was also an increasing interest in the bigger European picture. The question of targets, government incentives and legislative changes all gained some pretty serious air time. With all parties broadly in agreement of the need to work more closely together in the future.

And yet despite this patchwork of conversations, there was one issue that was never far from people’s minds. That of the nuclear industry and the terrible crisis in Japan.

And while the ramifications that the tragedy is currently having on the international energy markets will play out for some time to come, the longer term question of the viability of nuclear crops up once again. A European mix of energy sources is of course unquestionable – it’s just how that mix plays out that is already causing the headaches.