Australia to host global energy decentralisation event

Stan Beer
Monday, 20 October 2008 09:27

Science - Energy

Australia is to host a distributed energy conference in November, organised by the CSIRO. The event, hosted in Sydney, will focus on ways to generate renewable and other sources energy closer to the places that use them.

Decentralised or distributed energy refers to power generated close to where it is used and may include renewable energy sources, as well as the controlled management and efficiency of how electricity is used and is a key research area of the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship.

CSIRO’s Centre for Distributed Energy and Power (CenDEP) and the World Alliance for Decentralised Energy (WADE) have announced they will host a conference on decentralised energy in November. According to the CSIRO, the event was prompted by the release of the Garnaut Report and mounting community interest in climate change,

The conference ‘Decentralised Energy: Technology, policy and opportunities for Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region’ will be held on 20 and 21 November at Rydges World Square, Sydney Hotel.

The conference will cover topics including renewable energy generation, policy development, distributed energy reliability and flexibility, the Garnaut Review and intelligent grids.

According to CenDEP, it will provide an insight to Distributed energy activities in Asia Pacific from some leading proponents in WADE and also have a VIP visit to CSIRO’s Energy Center in Newcastle.

CenDEP Director, Mr Terry Jones, said the conference will provide members of the energy industry, government representatives and large energy users with an opportunity to learn more about distributed energy, which is an alternative to energy generated at large centralised power stations.

“Looking at lower emission generation technologies and systems are critical if we are to rapidly respond to climate change,” Mr Jones said.

Currently, around 80 per cent of energy consumed in Australia is generated from centralised carbon intensive power stations.

“As well as finding ways to make these power stations cleaner, it’s important to investigate ways to generate energy closer to where it is being used, and to better control that energy use,” Mr Jones said.

“This conference will allow leaders in this field to share their research, ideas and experiences and move us closer towards a cleaner energy model.”

Conference delegates are expected to include energy managers, large private and public energy users, facility managers, policy makers and experts and representatives from utility companies.