Energy Conference Inland Norway

Representatives from four European energy agencies gathered last week at Gjøvik and Hamar in Norway, to discuss their common challenges in the field of sustainable energy use.

Inland Norway Energy Agency had the great pleasure of welcoming representatives from energy agencies part of the Intelligent Energy Europe Network (IEE) in Sweden, Latvia and Croatia to exchange views, experiences and new ideas.

The goal of the conference was twofold; to focus on the challenges facing Europe with regards to efficient use of energy and shifting towards renewable sources of energy on the first day. On day two the main theme was state of the art energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The conference was part of a broader cooperation between the participating energy agencies with several meeting points. Their last meeting was in Sweden earlier this year.

Exchanging Experiences

Despite different starting points, local conditions and sources of renewable energy, the main challenge for all energy agencies is to get the message across to households, industry, companies and decision-makers. Exchanging ideas of how to best approach this is one of several areas where the various agencies can learn from the experience of others'.

Managing Director Erik Longva in Inland Norway Energy Agency is pleased with the experience:

"All four agencies were founded around the same time, and are part of the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, and as such it is particularly useful for us to compare notes, and get new ideas and share our experiences. This particular conference is multi-layered; board members get to exchange ideas with other board members, energy experts with other energy experts and executives with other executives. This way, we keep it relevant for everyone involved".

The evening was spent socialising after a visit to the Vitensenteret in Gjøvik (Science Centre for children and youth). The program seen by the conference delegates was the same as Vitensenteret uses to spur the interest in science among middle school pupils.

State of the Art

At Hamar on 8 September, the theme was state of the art within rational use of eand renewable energy sources". The conference included a presentation of the case study "Renewable energy systems in Inland Norway" and assorted international speakers.

The participants then entered round table discussions, which included topical introductions from each of the participating agencies.

More information

• Full agenda and downloads of presentations