BONN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th September, 2018) The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will hold its annual Innovation Week conference in Germany's Bonn on September 5-7, bringing together business leaders, innovators and policy makers in order to stimulate the discussion on how to foster power transition and to work out business models that help this goal.
The first Innovation Week of this kind was held in 2016. This year, the invitation-only event will bring together around 250 leading companies in the field of renewable energy and public officials. The high-level segment will take place on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
Among state officials who are expected to take part are Martin Healy, the renewable energy adviser of the US State Department; representatives of the European Commission; a senior representative of the State Grid Corporation of China; a senior official from the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as well as a senior representative of the Federal Minister of Germany for Economic Affairs and Energy.
The remarkable decline in the cost of renewables' technologies in recent years gives clean energy all chances to become fully competitive with fossil fuels in just two years - by 2020, according to IRENA's analysis. Therefore, the challenge of building such power systems that can be widely and reliably integrated by a vast number of countries committed to the Paris Climate Agreement goals, with minimum costs, comes to the fore.
In 2017, the share of green energy in total power generation was approximately one fourth, IRENA statistics says. However, in order to meet the Paris deal goals and keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, states need to achieve an 85-percent-share of renewable energy in total electricity generation by 2050, the agency warns. That means investment in green infrastructure and innovations needs to become government-supported and systematic.
This is exactly why the IRENA conference brings together policy makers and innovators. Companies attending will not only showcase their latest achievements and solutions on the generation and use of renewable energy, but also make their voices heard by the governments and explore together with policy makers their growth opportunities.
