Attendance Up One Quarter at SEAI’s Energy Show 2016
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland’s (SEAI) annual two-day business-to-business event, The Energy Show 2016, was a huge success with visitors up a quarter on last year. The show took place at the RDS in Dublin on April 6th and 7th and featured an extensive electric vehicle showcase, live retrofit demonstrations, an international markets pavilion, multiple networking events and lots of free briefings and workshops. The Energy Show plays an important role for the growing Irish energy sector, hosting over 170 exhibitors, two thirds of whom were Irish, with the remaining third travelling from overseas to take part. Over 4,700 professionals attending the Show saw the latest sustainable energy technologies and services on the market.
Commenting on the success of the Show, SEAI’s William Walsh, Interim CEO, said: “The sustainable energy sector is worth around €1.5 billion to Ireland annually and the Energy Show generates about €60m of business in its own right. Witnessing the scale of business activity over the last couple of days at the Energy Show confirms that this is a strong and growing sector, with significant international opportunity. There is now constant innovation in smart energy solutions and as we work towards meeting our energy targets, this expertise is definitely to Ireland’s advantage.”
Product of the Show accolade went to Solar Electric Ireland for their product sonnenBatterie – a high tech energy storage solution which also won them Best Innovative Product. The product combines a solar photovoltaic system and a battery, meaning homeowners can get about 75% of their yearly electricity requirement from clean energy generated on their roof. The system is already installed in thousands of homes in Europe.
Commenting on the win, Solar Electric Ireland co-owners, Robert Goss and Tom Foley, said: Our business is supplying and installing solar PV systems across Ireland. Now that storage systems have become technically and financially viable, we are delighted to have secured the rights to the market-leader in Germany, the Eco8 from sonnenBatterie. The fact that our product was chosen as Best Innovative Product and Product of the Show puts an important “seal of approval” on the product and supports our plan to launch the product in Ireland this summer. The product was very well received by visitors to The Energy Show and we have already had a number of good enquiries from the show that will make up our pilot projects for June installation.”
Other category winners were: MCC Energy, winner of Best Renewable Product for its Hybrid Power Charging Station; Metac, winner of Best Service Provider for its energy training courses; Origen Energy winner of Best Energy Efficient Product for its Robur gas absorption heat pump; and Best Product of the Future went to Rexel Energy Solutions for its battery energy storage system.
Video highlights from the Energy Show 2016 can be seen on www.seai.ie/energyshow
