An intense first day at Glasgow’s All Energy. It’s a conference I’ve been finding time in the diary for since it was held in Aberdeen, many years ago.
As ever in this ‘can do’ country, where delivery is paramount, innovation was evident from the moment we arrived with sustainable plastic lanyards setting the tone and digital technology replacing the telephone directory sized programmes of previous years.
The aural landscape of Glasgow, as with London a couple of weeks ago, is notably quieter and more relaxing as electric and hydrogen busses gradually replace the diesel fleet.
Directly across from my hotel sits a brand new, sustainably built, JP Morgan building, a sign of financial confidence in the City and in Scotland.
The Consenting of the hydrogen hub at Oban and yesterday’s positive news around Grangemouth improved the mood – certainly when compared with last year’s muted event.
Many of the developers I spoke with have refined business cases to align with HAR2 applications. This support round is top of the agenda for a number of them and projects aligned with the support mechanisms provided by the UK government applications.
The ScotWind West of Orkney Offshore Wind Farm, is also making progress with the planning submissions submitted I had an insightful discussion with a project team who were kind enough to clarify a couple of aspects in detail.
As for the UK’s government hydrogen ramp up there is a feeling that we making something of a mistake appointing departmental insiders to key roles rather than those have actually developed the nascent sector to date. Is the opportunity best served by a Civil Service mindset, rather those who actually delivered major projects and familiar with KPI’s, health and safety, milestones and innovation for such a fast moving sector?
Speculation around the political dimension and stop-go cycle and not just the UK but Europe and America too. 2024 is shaping to be a pivotal year.
As ever, innovative equipment is on show and I sign off by sharing a couple of them:
![Energy Central Top Voices 2024 [All Network Summary]](https://energynews.today/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/picture-274514-1696273521-90x60.webp)
