IEA to host webinar on new energy technologies and flexible electricity

22 Jun 2012

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is hosting a webinar on Friday, 29 June, to share its insights around new developments in energy technology, particularly around achieving flexibility of electricity systems, as well as energy storage and smart grids.

The title of the webinar is ‘Flexible Electricity: technology and operation of a clean, secure and economical electricity system’.

The IEA will be discussing its findings from its latest publication New Energy Perspectives 2012. It said the webinar will aim to demonstrate how technologies – from electric vehicles to smart grids – can play a role in limiting the global temperature rise to 2°C, as well as looking at energy security.

“While our efforts to bring about a clean-energy transformation are falling further behind, I want to stress the golden opportunity before us: If significant policy action is taken, we can still achieve the huge potential for these technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and boost energy security,” said IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven in a statement.

Some of the areas the publication looks at include changing the roles of fossil fuels. For instance, it covers how higher steam temperatures have the potential to cut coal-fired power plants’ emissions by 30pc. It said this would give energy systems more flexibility, against the backdrop of natural gas and renewable sources, such as wind and solar that, the IEA claims, can balance generation and demand fluctuations in energy systems.

The webinar itself will take place from 2pm to 3.30pm (BST) or 3pm to 4.30pm (CEST) next Friday. People can register online.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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