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Energising All-Energy

May 2011

“Jeremy has been the strongest of strong supporters of the show ever since, and I refer to him with all manner of titles ranging from ‘godfather’ to ‘midwife!”

It was during “the dark winter of 1998” when the oil price was in the basement that the embryo of what has become the UK’s biggest renewables exhibition and conference began to form.

In Aberdeen Jeremy Creswell, the energy writer for The Press and Journal, was beginning to stir interest in renewable energy because of the potential synergy he believed there could be between traditional oil and gas and offshore renewables.

He spoke to contacts which prompted a small private dinner in February 2000 hosted by Simmons and Company International to which he and key figures from Scottish Enterprise, Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce were invited.

Driven by Jeremy the vision which emerged from that dinner was for a “different kind of energy conference” and the pieces of the jigsaw which would ultimately result in All-Energy began to come together.

“I was more convinced than ever that the time was right for Aberdeen and Scotland and the UK to grasp the all energy nettle,” he said.

He said that the idea had attracted the interest of David Stott, organiser of Offshore Europe and his colleague Judith Patten.

“They had met with city council officials and saw the strategic value of establishing a new conference, quite aside from Offshore Europe and they wanted to participate in and help develop the original thinking, not bypass us and as a result were invited to take the commercial risk.”

Judith Patten explained that they had been looking for a destination for a renewables energy show and that the enthusiasm being shown by Jeremy and others made their decision easy.

“David was able to publicly offer, at a dinner staged by the Lord Provost, that we would host a renewables show in Aberdeen,” she said. “We formed a partnership with Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre to stage what was initially known as ‘Creating an All-Energy Future.’

“We were delighted to hear that Jeremy had formed a group - later to grow formally into AREG – and Jeremy and that group worked with us on conference content for the first show.

“Jeremy has been the strongest of strong supporters of the show ever since, and I refer to him with all manner of titles ranging from ‘godfather’ to ‘midwife!’ His enthusiasm for renewables certainly helped us decide that Aberdeen was the right place to hold All-Energy. Little did we dream how large it would become, so quickly.”

Jeremy’s efforts were formally recognised recently when he was presented with the ”Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” award at the annual Green Energy Awards.

He told Business Bulletin: “With the drive of people like Judith Patten and David Stott All-Energy hit the buttons at the right time and in spite of the apparent lack of real business opportunities in the North Sea it was all about this brave new world of renewables.

“We have this oil and gas supply chain which in many respects is a readymade supply chain for maritime renewables if the operators want it. The fear was and remains that they try and reinvent the wheel, develop their own contracting practices and apply potentially the wrong technologies, the wrong ideas, the wrong engineering principles and make a God awful mess of it.

“There have been some significant mistakes but gradually the oil and gas chain is being recognised as relevant and that is incredibly important to All-Energy. All-Energy has gone from strength to strength and beyond the expectations of anyone involved and has achieved many things including helping create awareness within the oil and gas supply chain about opportunities, and very substantial ones, coming over the horizon.

“Especially in the last three years we have seen significant traction beginning to build, particularly as big players in the supply chain begin to take the idea of the renewables opportunity seriously - Wood Group, AMEC, Technip, Subsea 7 now merged with Acergy building a renewables division and the likes of RGB are keenly interested in getting into renewables.

“Within the next five years the big Round 3 UK projects will be underway with the construction of thousands of turbines and they represent a huge business opportunity. The same story will be repeated elsewhere. Are we just going to let this slip by us? I don’t think so but is not a given.

“I am very positive about the next five years and beyond. I think Aberdeen will become an important hub and very relevant to maritime renewables which includes wave and tidal which are several years behind in terms of development.

“There are very important European greenhouse gas emissions targets also driving this and don’t forget about carbon capture. The oil and gas industry is already well versed in carbon capture albeit most of it is in the States but a lot of the thinking and a lot of the baseline technologies are already there to take it forward.

“I was shocked to get the achievement award because the bottom line is I am a journalist who specialises in energy but I am not content to hide behind my pen.

“It has been a privilege to have been allowed to play a part in all of this and I do encourage everyone in the Aberdeen business community to work together – with the Chamber with ACSEF, with AREG with the city with the shire to ensure that the North-east of Scotland really capitalises on this multi faceted maritime energy future.”