Marine Energy Wales Conference 2021
Online: 27, 28, 29th January 2021
The MEW Conference is going online, book your tickets now.
The Marine Energy Wales conference is the largest conference in the UK dedicated to marine energy.
Join an audience of professionals in this showcase of Welsh industry and find out more about current projects and future plans.
Due to popular demand the conference will be extended for the very first time, maximising networking time and introducing floating offshore wind to the programme.
With thanks to all of our Sponsors for their support for our first ever virtual conference. Please see below for a full list of our MEW Conference 2021 Sponsor and Exhibitors.
We are also hosting a virtual Networking Reception on the evening of Wednesday 27th January
Why Attend?
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Hear the latest progress – Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in Wales, alongside future opportunities.
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Join the discussion – The event provides a forum to discuss key challenges and opportunities and to encourage collaboration and business networking.
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Network – Last year we welcomed 200+ professionals representing 120 different organisations from across Europe, including supply chain, technology developers, academia and government.
Find details of our 2021 conference programme, sponsorship and exhibition packages below.
Information on speakers will be updated as we confirm them.
- Sponsorship and exhibition
- Programme day one: 27 January 2021
- Programme day two: 28 January 2021
- Programme day three: 29 January 2021
- Practical Info
Sponsorship and Exhibition
Raise your company’s profile by becoming an event sponsor or join our industry exhibition. Our packages have been designed to offer maximum exposure for your business so download our information pack here.
At our previous events, all sponsorship and exhibition space has been fully booked so book early to avoid disappointment.
Day one, Wednesday 27th January
11:00
Event open, exhibition hall and networking
11:30
Opening remarks from MEW Chair, Martin Murphy
11:40
Key note address from Lesley Griffiths MS, Minister for Energy, Environment & Rural Affairs
12:00 – 13:15
Net zero, what role will offshore marine energy play?
The commitment to Net Zero by 2050 will change the future of our energy systems and will require innovative challenges on unprecedented levels. This panel discussion will debate the role offshore marine energy can play in the future renewable energy mix.
Chair: Jess Hooper, MEW Programme Manager
Gareth Davies, Managing Director, Aquaterra
Martin Edlund, CEO, Minesto
Remi Gruet, CEO, Ocean Energy Europe
Miriam Noonan, Senior Financial Analyst, ORE Catapult
Rhodri James, Lead Business Developer, Equinor
13:15 – 13:45
Lunch, exhibition, ‘Fireside Chat’ and networking for MEW Members (if you would like to learn more about joining MEW please visit our membership page here).
13:20 – 13:30
Stakeholder Insights: An EU perspective with Ocean Energy Europe
13:45 – 15:15
Policy and planning to support ocean energy mitigation for climate change.
Wales was the first country in the world to legally pass a climate emergency. To deliver on Wales’ ambitions, an innovative approach to policy, planning and collaboration will be required. This session will discuss current plans, lessons learnt and what the future could look like.
Chair: Mike Dowell, Deputy director for marine and fisheries, Welsh Government
James Moon, Lead Specialist Advisor, Offshore Renewable Energy Programme. Natural Resources Wales
Ruth De Silva, Consultant Marine Ecologist. RPS
Jim Mckie, Chair, Wales Consenting Strategic Advisory Group
Mike Williams, Director of Local Partnerships, Welsh Government
Helen Donovan, Senior Industrial Transformation Manager, Welsh Government
15:15 – 16:00Main MEW Conference |
15:15 – 16:00MEW Conference Side Event |
15:15 – 16:00Networking and exhibition 15:20 – 16:00 Stakeholder Insights: Focus areas for 2021 with The Crown Estate |
15:15 – 16:00Welsh Government Sectoral Locational Guidance update, Side Event. Initial outcomes of Atkins’ development of SLG for wave energy, tidal stream and aquaculture sectors, including assessment of interactions.
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16:00 – 17:15Shaping Research to unlock the oceans potential. Research has a critical role to play in the need to sustainably source marine energy. This session will provide updates from Welsh and UK wide research and ID how to maximise collaboration and impact post EU funding. Chair: Steve Hall, CEO Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum Tim Stallard, Professor at Manchester University, Supergen Jennifer Fox, Senior Consultant, ORJIP Professor Lewis Le Vay, Director, Centre of Applied Marine Sciences, Bangor University Professor Ian Masters, Selkie, MEECE. College of Engineering, Swansea University Catherine Tait, Consultant, Aquatera Rob Spice, Consultant Engineer, ITPEnergised 17:15 Day 1 wrap up 18:00 – 19:30 Networking Reception
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Day two, Thursday 28th January
09:00
Event open by Steve Hall, MEW Project Director and CEO of Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum
Exhibition hall and networking
09:15 – 10:30
Lessons learned and future priorities, a test centre perspective
The UK and Ireland are home to the world’s leading test sites with decades of combined operational experience. This session will dive into sector lessons and what should be the focus in the 2020s, including plans for Wales to add to the UKs test centre network.
Chair, Tim Hurst, Managing Director, Wave Energy Scotland
Rob Flynn, International Development Manager, European Marine energy Centre (EMEC)
John Breslin, Managing Director, Blue Wise Marine
George Crossley, Site Manager, Fabtest
Saul Young, Operations Manager, META
Sue Barr, Director, Cambrian Offshore
10:30 – 11:00Main MEW Conference |
10:30 – 11:00MEW Conference Side Event |
10:30 – 11:00Networking and exhibition 10:35 – 10:45 Stakeholder Insights: A unified voice with Renewable-UK Cymru and Scottish Renewables |
10:30 – 11:00Bombora Side Event The Road to InSPIRE – Integrating mWave and Wind on a Single Floating Platform Combining wind and wave floating platforms takes advantage of balance of plant synergies resulting in a reduced cost of energy. Join Bombora’s workshop in partnership with Apollo as they present their White Paper on the ‘Design of a floating structure to enable deep-water operation of mWave™ technology’. The paper is based on work conducted by Bombora and Apollo Offshore Engineering, utilising their expertise to drive forward plans to optimise mWave’s floating offshore performance and extend its application into this new market. Bombora, in partnership with global offshore engineering experts TechnipFMC, have now commenced work on project InSPIRE to develop an Integrated mWave and Wind Floating Platform. Joins us to find out more.
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11:00 – 12:00
Alternative routes to deliver ocean energy
Remote island communities running on diesel generators, decentralised networks, combining marine energy with battery storage, the future alongside hydrogen, floating wind and wave powering oil and gas platforms, co-locating with underwater data centres. A number of alternative routes to delivering low carbon marine energy are being delivered, explored and proposed.
Chair, Donagh Cagney, Policy Director, Ocean Energy Europe
Tam Bardell, Energy Development Manager, Milford Haven Port Authority
Elaine Buck, Technical Manager, European Marine Energy Centre
Ian Johnstone, Director, Aquatera
John Meagher, Director, Nova Innovation
12:15 – 13:15
Lunch, exhibition and networking for MEW Members (if you would like to learn more about joining MEW please visit our membership page here).
13:15 – 14:30
Project Showcase – Wave and Floating Offshore Wind
How will current Welsh activity capitalise on an early mover advantage? Floating wind developers are being attracted to the South West approaches and opportunities are being explored to co-locate technology with wave energy in the Pembrokeshire Demonstration Zone.
Chair, Kerry Hayes, Project Manager, Regen
Sam Leighton, Managing Director, Bombora Wave Power
Graham Foster, Chief Technical Officer, Marine Power Systems
Mike Scott, Project Managing Director, Blue Gem Wind
Alex Meredith, Offshore Wind Investment Manager, RWE
Steve Jermy, Chair, Wave Hub Development Services Ltd
14:45 – 15:00
Stakeholder Insights: The Celtic Sea Opportunity
Event closing remarks, Martin Murphy, Chair, MEW
MEW Conference Side Event
15:00 – 17:00
Introducing the Marine Energy Engineering Centre of Excellence (MEECE)
Day three, Friday 29th January
09:00
Event opening remarks from Jasper Roberts, Deputy Director, Renewable Energy Programme & Projects, Welsh Government
Exhibition hall and networking
09:15 – 10.30
Blueprint for Cost Reduction
All emerging marine energy technologies need to reduce LCOE in order to compete with more established renewables and progress to commercialisation. This session will explore how these technologies can meet this challenge through innovation and industry build out to deliver to market.
Chair, Simon Cheeseman, Sector Lead: Wave & tidal energy, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Guy Raymond, Floating Wind Knowledge Manager, RWE
James Davies, Chair, Industry Wales
Tim Baker, Marine Energy Director, Black & Veatch
Oliver Wragg, Commercial Director, Orbital Marine
David Langston, Programme Manager, Wave Energy Scotland
10:30 – 11:00Networking and exhibition 10:40 – 10:50Stakeholder Insights: Pembroke Dock Marine |
10:30 – 11:00MEW Conference Side Event |
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10:30 – 11:00 Selkie Side Event – Geographic Information Systems tool development. The Selkie GIS-TE tool will include recent geospatial and logistical data – what additional layers could benefit your business?
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11:00 – 12:00
Turning the UK’s electrons blue
Looking beyond supporting revenue mechanisms, how does the MRE sector begin to turn the electricity network supply blue? In this session we will review what our first customers will look like, how we will begin to deliver at a scale and pace that meets the decarbonisation challenge for Wales.
Chair, Amrik Bal, Policy and public affairs director, Marine Energy Council
Magnus Harrold, Innovation Manager, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult
Tim Warham, Renewables Strategy, Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Chris Williams, Head of industrial Decarbonisation, Industry Wales
Matt Hodson, Marine Operations Director, Wave Hub Development Services Ltd
James Greenhalgh, Head of Electricity Customer Connections, National Grid
12:15 – 13:15
Lunch, exhibition and networking for MEW Members (if you would like to learn more about joining MEW please visit our membership page here).
13:15 – 14:30Main MEW Conference |
14:30 – 17:00MEW Conference Side Event
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13:15 – 14:30Project Showcase – Tidal Stream and Tidal Range From low velocity currents, array scale zones attracting global leaders, community off-grid solutions and future plans for tidal range, the sector is stimulating peripheral economies and providing innovative supply chain diversification and early mover advantage in a growing global market. Chair: Sue Barr, Marine Energy Council David Collier, Chief Operating Officer, Minesto Gerallt Llewelyn Jones, Director, Morlais John Meagher, Director, Nova Innovation Henry Dixon, Chair, Tidal Range Alliance Andrew Scott, CEO, Orbital Marine |
14:30 – 17:00 ORE Supergen and ORJIP Ocean Energy Side Event: “De-risking consenting of tidal arrays – are we nearly there yet?” With key speakers from the Marine Energy Council, Natural Resources Wales, ORJIP Ocean Energy, the Welsh Consenting Strategic Advisory Group, OES Environmental this workshop will focus on the key environmental consenting risks that remain within the tidal energy industry and how we can work together to address these risks and streamline the consenting process in Wales. |
14:30Event wrap up and close by Martin Murphy, Chair, MEW |
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2021 Practical Information
The 2021 Conference will be online on our event platform, Hopin. Please see below our user guides to get familiar with the platform, and hopefully answer any FAQ’s
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Further Reasons to Attend:
- Wales has been awarded the highest level of support from the European Union for the Structural Funds programming round 2014-2020. Marine Energy is a priority area and has attracted funding of €100.4 million with an intervention rate of 69.43%.
- The Swansea Bay City Deal has been signed off with eleven major projects underway including the £76 million Pembroke Dock Marine, which aims to develop a world class centre for marine energy development, fabrication, testing and deployment in Pembrokeshire.
- There are 16 marine energy developers actively progressing projects in Wales with seabed agreements in place for over 362MW of marine energy.
- A number of test and demonstration sites are under development in Wales including the Pembrokeshire and Anglesey array scale Demonstration Zones, Marine Energy Test Area and Ramsey Sound. These projects will provide test beds for innovative wave, tidal stream and floating wind technologies, enabling valuable learning across the sector and adding to the UK’s world-leading test centre network.
- This conference is a platform to learn about existing projects in Wales, alongside sector developments and opportunities. It also provides a forum to discuss key challenges and opportunities and to encourage collaboration and business networking.
- Since 2010, the Marine Energy Pembrokeshire/Marine Energy Wales annual conferences have been fully booked. The number of supply chain companies, supporting organisations and technology developers has increased year on year, demonstrating the advancement of the sector and a growing interest in Wales. In 2019 we welcomed 200+ delegates who represented 120 global organisations.