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2023 Highlights
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Facing New Realities: Rethinking Energy Use, Supply, and Policy in the Wake of the Global Energy Crisis

  • The global energy industry continues to face turbulent times, experiencing the worst energy crisis in decades, with high energy prices, supply chain disruptions, and economic instability.
  • However, almost a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the outlook is relatively positive compared to early dire predictions. .
  • While the short-term news is surprisingly positive, the world that emerges from this energy crisis will require a vastly different strategy to approaching the energy transition.
  • Firstly, supply chains have shortened. It is difficult to imagine a return to the levels of integrations that drove the energy transition in the past decade, such as solar and battery technology from China.
  • Secondly, decarbonisation is now a matter of survival. The need for energy independence, especially in Europe, has reinforced the existing decarbonisation imperative to drive investment in both mature and immature energy technologies.
  • Thirdly, Europe’s energy intensive industries are threatened. Europe must now re-evaluate the reliance of its manufacturing industry on cheap Russian fossil fuels, especially in countries like Germany.
  • The Aurora Spring Forum 2023 focused on rethinking energy use, supply, and policy in the wake of the global energy crisis.

Speaker Highlights

Ignacio Galán

Executive Chairman, Iberdrola

Sinead Gorman

Chief Financial Officer, Shell

Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade

Chief Executive Officer, EDP

Michele Crisostomo

Chair, Enel

Markus Krebber

CEO, RWE AG

Amber Rudd

Former UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

2022 Highlights
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Delivering the energy transition in a fractured world: Navigating price volatility, geopolitical risk, and supply chain disruption

  • Critical Energy Transition Moment: Pandemic aftermath still impacting the energy sector despite subsiding.
  • Supply Chain Challenges: Global economic shutdown hampers supply chain investments, leading to shortages in metals, fossil fuels, and transport.
  • Renewable Energy Cost Surge: Batteries and solar cells see a 30% cost increase despite a decade of falling prices.
  • Macroeconomic Stagflation: Accommodative monetary and fiscal policy – especially in USA – has created a macroeconomic environment of stagflation, blunting investment signals and signalling a potential shift to higher interest rates.
  • Geopolitical Impact on Energy: Geopolitical conflicts, especially the war in Europe, influence energy dynamics as supply of energy is being wielded as among Russia’s most potent weapons.
  • European Energy Security: Discussions centre on the global energy transition, emphasising the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine on European energy security.

Speaker Highlights

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Ben van Beurden

Chief Executive Officer Shell

Ruth Kent

Managing Partner & Chief Operating Officer, Renewable Power & Transition Group Brookfield

Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade

Chief Executive Officer, EDP and EDP Renewables

Nora Mead Brownell

Former Commissioner FERC and Former Chair PG&E

Katja Wünschel

Chief Executive Officer, Onshore Wind and Solar Europe & Australia RWE Renewables

2021 Highlights
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Building back: strategising the energy sector’s role in the global economic recovery

  • The energy sector’s role in delivering a green and resilient recovery
  • Decarbonising Europe and the changing renewables investment landscape
  • How to transform the energy sector to ensure a just transition
  • Does Net Zero emissions imply zero wholesale power prices?
  • Market design to enable the Net Zero transition
  • Hydrogen’s role in driving Europe’s green recovery
  • The future of offshore wind, technology scale and market structure
  • Decarbonising household emissions – where have we failed in the past and how do we make it work in the future
  • Long-duration storage as a solution to reduce the cost of meeting the Net Zero targets

Speaker Highlights

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Agnès Pannier-Runacher

French Minister Delegate for Industry

Andreas Nauen

Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy

Kate Ringrose

Chief Financial Officer, Centrica

Rui Manuel Rodrigues Lopes Teixeira

Chief Financial Officer EDP, Former CEO EDPR

Markus Krebber

Chief Executive Officer, RWE

2020 Highlights
The Aurora Spring Forum

Capitalising on Net Zero: strategies to thrive in a deeply decarbonised energy sector

  • Global Net Zero by 2050 – feasibility and financial implications
  • The role of utilities in achieving Net Zero and the policies needed in this parliament
  • The role of hydrogen in Net Zero as one of the most promising decarbonisation options
  • Financial implications of Coronavirus on energy companies
  • Net Zero technologies: the role of nuclear, and Government support for the next wave of emerging technologies
  • Renewables investment – strategies in an increasingly competitive sector
  • The role of the company board during the transition
  • The European Green Deal and what it means for the power sector

Speaker Highlights

Kwasi Kwarteng, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

Minister of State for Business Energy and Clean Growth

Baroness Brown, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Baroness Brown

Vice Chair, Committee on Climate Change

Jean Bernard Levy, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Jean-Bernard Levy

Chief Executive Officer, EDF

Francesco Starace, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Francesco Starace

Chief Executive Officer, Enel

Judith Hartmann, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Judith Hartmann

Chief Financial Officer, ENGIE

Antonio Mexia, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Antonio Mexia

Chief Executive Officer, EDP

2019 Highlights
The Aurora Spring Forum
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The future of energy

  • Future energy policy: climate change, security of supply and European integration
  • 2050 perspective – Future European power system and strategic implications
  • Future utility business models: will we see more specialisation or integration?
  • Future energy technologies: when will CCS come of age?
  • The future of merchant renewables in the European power market
  • Future of carbon pricing: what is the trajectory for the ETS towards 2030?

Speaker Highlights

Greg Clark, speaker at Aurora's event

The RT Hon Greg Clark

MP

Iain Conn, speaker at Aurora's event

Iain Conn

CEO, Centrica

Joao Manso Neto, speaker at Aurora's event

João Manso Neto

CEO, EDP Renewables

Dorothy Thompson, speaker at Aurora's event

Dorothy Thompson CBE

Non-Executive Chair, Tullow Oil

Audrey Zibelman speaks at Aurora's conference

Audrey Zibelman

CEO, AEMO

Johannes Teyssen, speaker at Aurora's event

Johannes Teyssen

CEO, E.ON

2018 Highlights
The Aurora Spring Forum
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Navigating the global energy transition

  • What is the future of oil and gas in a carbon constrained world: gradual burnout or revival?
  • Next steps for renewables: thriving in a post-subsidy environment?
  • Disruptive technologies and the future of the energy market
  • Financing the energy transition: evolving norms, risk conceptions and treatment of market-exposed revenues
  • The return of the state? Energy sector implications of the British industrial strategy
  • The state of the German Energiewende: industrial competitiveness vs decarbonisation

Speaker Highlights

Claire Perry, speaker at the Aurora Spring Forum

Rt Hon Claire Perry

Minister for Energy, BEIS

Dermot Nolan, speaker at Aurora's event

Dermot Nolan

CEO, Ofgem

Pratima Rangajaran, speaker at Aurora's event

Dr. Pratima Rangajaran

CEO, OCGI Climate

Magnus Hall

CEO & President, Vattenfall

Mike Lewis, speaker at Aurora's event

Michael Lewis

CEO, E.ON UK

Simone Rossi, speaker at Aurora's Spring Forum

Simone Rossi

CEO, EDF Energy

2017 Highlights
The Aurora Spring Forum

The transformation underway in the global energy system

  • Current state of play in the energy market reform: successes, failures and next steps
  • Emerging technologies, scientific progress and deployment potential
  • Implementing the energy transformation
  • Financing the energy transformation
  • Current state of play in the Energiewende: successes, failures and next steps

Speaker Highlights

Ben van Beurden, speaker at Aurora's event

Ben van Beurden

CEO, Shell

Matthew Bell, speaker at Aurora's event

Matthew Bell

Chief Executive, CCC

Cordi O'Hara

Director, National Grid

Peter Bruce, speaker at Aurora's event

Peter Bruce

Professor, University of Oxford

Sonja Chirico Indrebo, speaker at Aurora's event

Sonja Chirico Indrebø

Vice President, Statoil

Dr Frank Mastiaux, speaker at Aurora's event

Dr. Frank Mastiaux

CEO, EnBW

2016 Highlights
The Aurora Spring Forum

Emerging economic and political forces

  • The UK’s role post-Paris: 2030 targets, renewables, efficiency, and the speed of coal’s death
  • Perfecting the energy union: interconnection, inconsistent capacity markets, and state aid norms
  • Emerging technologies: potential game changers, and their likely progress
  • Key disruptive technologies and the flexible energy market of the future

Speaker Highlights

Amber Rudd, speaker at Aurora's event

Rt Hon Amber Rudd

Secretary of State, Energy and Climate Change

Steve Holliday, speaker at Aurora's event

Steve Holliday

Chief Executive, National Grid

Robert Groves, speaker at Aurora's event

Robert Groves

CEO, Smartest Energy

Laurie Fitch, speaker at Aurora's event

Laurie Fitch

Co-head, Global Industrials Group, Morgan Stanley

Tony Cocker, speaker at Aurora's event

Tony Cocker

Chief Executive, E.ON UK

Richard Nourse, speaker at Aurora's event

Richard Nourse

Managing Partner, Greencoat Capital