Mar 15 2008
Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America (formerly POWER-GEN Renewable Energy & Fuels) opened in February with a standing-room only keynote with speeches by the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, presenters from GE Energy and Xcel Energy and the Mayor of Las Vegas.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) used this national forum to make a major renewable energy address in which he called on the U.S. Congress to pass a Renewable Electricity Standard. Under the proposed standard, a minimum requirement of renewable fuels would be set as a percentage of all energy consumption.
"This national Renewable Standard would encourage utilities to make real national investments in this new market opportunity," Sen. Reid said.
Reid praised the conference, which is produced and owned by PennWell, as being important "to recognize the fiscal and moral imperatives that lie ahead."
"Through the exchange of ideas comes innovation and progress," Reid said. "The solutions and ideas coming from meetings just like this are extremely impressive."
After the keynote address the Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America opened its exhibit floor featuring 225 leading renewable companies. That's an increase of 30% over last year's exhibits. The growth was noted by companies keen to do business at this industry-leading show.
"When PV Powered released our new 75kW and 100kW solar grid-tied inverters in Las Vegas last month, we had no idea how successful a forum like this trade show would be," said Erick Petersen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing with PV Powered. "The show floor was full of knowledgeable attendees excited to discuss the details of our new product and the renewable energy industry. We look forward to returning to the Renewable Energy World Conference and Expo North America, in 2009," Petersen said.
"Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America really brings together the key participants of the renewable energy industry," said Christopher Huntington, VP Business Development with SkyFuel Inc. "The REW conference and tradeshow provided SkyFuel with a great opportunity to showcase its solar power technology and to develop partnerships and customer relationships."
Not only did the exhibit floor increase over the past year's event, the conference showed tremendous growth overall, increasing the number of conference tracks from six to 10. With a total of 3,000 attendees this year, Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America is the continent's largest all-renewables event. The conference session rooms were at maximum capacity and all the Technical Tours were sold out well in advance of the event. Plans for next year's conference are well under way as the call for abstracts deadline is July 25.
PennWell also made an exciting renewable energy announcement at the event. PennWell recently acquired RenewableEnergyAccess.com, adding to its already strong renewable energy family, which includes Renewable Energy World magazine, Renewable Energy Europe Conference & Exhibition and POWER-GEN Renewable Energy & Fuels. By uniting these four powerful entities into one franchise, renewable energy industry professionals now have access to an unprecedented network of global information, market news, networking platforms and education/training. POWER-GEN Renewable Energy & Fuels has been renamed Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America, RenewableEnergyAccess.com will now be called RenewableEnergyWorld.com and, coming in June, Renewable Energy Europe will be renamed Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo Europe.
"Both events will remain the premier all-renewables conferences and exhibitions covering the most important trends and issues impacting the industry," said Richard Baker, Vice-President of the Power Group at PennWell Corporation. "RenewableEnergyWorld.com will continue to be the world's number one renewable energy Web site, offering daily and weekly industry updates. Renewable Energy World magazine will continue to be the leading source of international news and information for renewable energy professionals." Baker said, "We are excited to be able to offer the industry the opportunity to get all of their renewable information and needs met in one place."