Energy conference lights up Warwick

The Zeeman Building was host to the annual Engineering Society Energy Conference that attracts some of the leading academics and industry professionals to talk about the current challenges in energy and how to solve them.

A crowd of 375 participants, with 33 percent of them being from other institutions independent of Warwick, sat down on Wednesday afternoon and discussed the energy trilemma: what is the best way to establish affordable, stable and efficient energy resources?

The conference was split up into three talks from Shell, one of the largest oil companies in the world; Warwick Manufacturing Group, one of the leading innovative arms of the Warwick in solving some of these energy efficiency problems; and the Warwick Business School (WBS).

Despite the fear of protest from some anti-fossil fuel pressure groups on campus, the event was free of protest and without much disturbance.

It was also attended by ABInBev, a leading beer brand management company, and Teach First who led interactive sessions looking at the challenges of energy on a more local and ground level.

Sammy Hasan, a second-year Engineering student, said: “The venue was a bit intimidating at first to have a discussion, but it was interesting to get an insight into the complexness of projects that some of these companies are working on.

“It would have been good to get a panel together to really drill down into the details of these solutions and see what we can do to be a part of it.”

Executive, Neil H. Nersesian of ABInBev congratulated the Engineering Society.

He said: “The turnout was amazing. The students and interaction that we had is very valuable to what we do. The conversations outside of the room were very engaging and we are looking to create a more sustainable partnership with Warwick in the future!”

David Elmes, of WBS, commented on the future of energy demands: “We have a lot of choices for energy in the future. We can do something a little different, as the landscape itself has gone from quite stable to more chaotic in recent years.

“Warwick itself has already invested £10 million into a heat and power plant on campus that enables us to make the most of waste energy, it looks to reduce energy costs by thousands of pounds a year”.

The close of the event marked the announcement of the new Technology Conference that will take place in January of the New Year.

Michael Andronicou, President of the Engineering Society, said: “We are extremely excited and proud to announce this venture as the first of its kind at Warwick this year.

“It really develops on from what we have been trying to achieve as a society over the past year and we are really looking to go from strength to strength in the run up to our flagship event.”

Tickets go on sale this coming week, and are priced at £9 for the full day.